Hundreds arrested after post-poll violence kills at least three in Indian state

Members of security forces stop vehicles as they stand guard along a road leading to the site where an aide of Suvendu Adhikari, a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal state, was shot dead days after the BJP secured a majority in the state assembly elections, in North 24 Parganas, on the outskirts of Kolkata, India, May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary

Hundreds of people were arrested after post-election violence erupted this week in an eastern Indian state, killing at least three people, including the aide to a senior leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

• Modi's BJP defeated incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the election in West Bengal state, where she has held power since 2011.

• Banerjee has refused to resign, saying she has "not been defeated" and accusing the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP to win the election.

• More than 200 criminal cases have been registered across the state for the violence and 433 people have been arrested, police chief Siddh Nath Gupta told reporters on Wednesday.

• BJP has accused the TMC of carrying out "targeted assassinations".

• TMC has condemned the violence that it says is being carried out by "BJP-backed miscreants".

• West Bengal has a history of post-election violence, and about a dozen people were killed during similar clashes between political parties after results were declared during the previous polls in 2021.