KOLKATA: National President of BJP JP Nadda on Thursday he said he escaped damage “by the grace of Ma Durga” when stones, bricks and bottles rained down on his convoy at three locations en route to Diamond Harbor in the 24-Parganas district of southern Bengal.
While the Union Interior Minister Amit Shah called for an official report on the “sponsored violence”, CM Mamata Banerjee accused Nadda of “nautanki (drama)”. west bengal Police claimed that “nothing happened” with Nadda’s convoy.
“Some passers-by threw stones at the vehicles following their convoy. Everyone is safe and the situation is peaceful, ”the police tweeted, adding that an investigation was underway.
Nadda’s convoy had left Calcutta for Diamond Harbor around noon. Once Amtala passed, just over 20 km from Calcutta, stones, bricks and empty glass bottles flew into the convoy from both sides of the road.
Vehicles were forced to slow down due to traffic congestion a little ahead, where TMC supporters were protesting against the new farm laws. The windshields of several cars were damaged even as Nadda’s security team tried to block the missiles, one of which landed on her bulletproof car.
A stone broke the windshield of Bengal caretaker BJP Kailash Vijayvargiya’s car. Vehicles carrying other BJP officials such as Mukul roy, Rahul Sinha and Anupam Hazra were also attacked, witnesses said. A glass bottle thrown at the car of Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh struck his security guard.
The convoy picked up speed only to be attacked again along a nine kilometer stretch of DH Road. All three incidents came hours after the BJP head of state wrote to Interior Minister Shah about the alleged security breaches on Wednesday at the party’s new office in Kolkata.
Nadda said there was resentment among the Bengal people “against this lawlessness.” Mamata said: “They (BJP) don’t have another job. Sometimes the interior minister is here, other times there is Chadda, Nadda, Fadda, Badda … They don’t even bother to inform the state about their movement, ”he said. “Who threw stones at whom? Why did they have to go with video cameras? Was there any provocation? I asked the police to find out all this.
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