Stones were reportedly thrown on BJP’s Kolkata tour, there was a large police presence at the scene.
Calcutta:
Stones were thrown on a BJP tour in Kolkata tonight, hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rally in Nandigram, where she faced party renegade Suvendu Adhikari in the upcoming state elections. I was leading the tour through an area considered a stronghold of the ruling Trinamool Congress in Kolkata when bottles were reportedly thrown from the rooftops, some people carrying Trinamool flags were seen throwing stones at the tour and shouting slogans of “back off” .
Problems were reported from at least three locations on the 2.5 km route of the BJP tour from Tollygunge metro station to Rash Behari More in southern Kolkata, an area that is the stronghold of the Trinamool.
A huge police force was immediately deployed to keep calm. Trinamool leader Arup Biswas who rushed to the scene claimed the BJP had planned and provoked the clashes. He also claimed that BJP supporters at the roadshow chased Trinamool supporters waving flags in narrow lanes off the main road and attacked them.
The BJP roadshow was a tit-for-tat show of strength against Mamata Banerjee on a day when she had gone to Nandigram. It was led by BJP head of state Dilip Ghosh and Suvendu Adhikari, who was Trinamool’s MLA in Nandigram until he joined the BJP in December.
The stone-throwing in the heart of Calcutta comes less than six weeks after the convoy of Mr. JP Nadda, president of the BJP, was stoned at Diamond Harbor and sparked a bitter dispute between the state and the Center.
On January 8, trouble broke out at a rally in Nandigram called by Adhikari and attended by top BJP leaders. Trinamool claimed that BJP workers had thrown stones at newcomers who had come to join the BJP. Mr Adhikari blamed the Trinamool.
The Trinamool Congress has come face to face with the BJP and political tension has increased as the state elections approach. Elections for the 294-member assembly must be held between April and May.
In recent months, there have been multiple cases of political violence, for which the two sides have blamed each other. In July last year, the BJP issued a list of more than 100 names, which it said were of its workers killed by the Trinamool Congress.
The ruling party had denied all the allegations, accusing the BJP of making false claims for political reasons.
In December, Mukul Roy, Kailash Vijayvargiya and five other BJP leaders had addressed the Supreme Court, alleging that the Bengal police had carried out a witch hunt at the behest of the Trinamool Congress after cases related to it were brought against them. political violence. They obtained a pardon from the court, which asked the state police not to take any immediate action against them.
Last week Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar met with Union Interior Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and discussed, among other things, the possibility of violence in the upcoming assembly elections.
“When we look at the 2018 panchayat elections and the 2019 general elections, you see that they have been bloody; rules have been violated and voters have been under stress,” said the governor, who has been accused by the Trinamool of repeatedly violating the constitution with his words and actions against the government of West Bengal.
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