Bengal-born, New York-based Mandal was covering a meeting convened by the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Tamluk, Rajyashree Chowdhury. Nandigram is part of the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency. The meeting was attended by BJP national spokesperson S S Ahluwalia among others.
Shortly after the meeting got underway, a group of men on motorcycles wearing Trinamool Congress headbands attacked the rally. On seeing Mandal photographing the attack, they pounced on him, snatched his cameras, smashed them and injured him badly.
The group is said to have gherao-ed those attending the rally for about an hour till a police force rescued them.
Mandal was brought to Kolkata for treatment on Tuesday evening.
Recounting the incident to rediff.com, Ahluwalia said, "They arrived out of the blue and attacked us for no apparent reason. On seeing the flash of Mandal's camera going off, they chose to unleash their anger on him."
"They beat him up, broke his camera and hurt him badly. Is this the way the Trinamool Congress want to fight elections?" he asked.
No Trinamool Congress leader was available for comment. When this correspondent tried to get in touch with Sougata Roy, the TMC candidate from Dum Dum, an associate said, "he is busy addressing a party meeting in his constituency."
