Violence erupted in several districts of West Bengal on Wednesday as Trinamool Congress cadres allegedly assaulted Bharatiya Janata Party workers and vandalised their party offices in protest against the arrest of party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay by the CBI in a chit fund scam.
Trinamool cadres staged demonstrations outside Union Minister Babul Supriyo’s house in north Kolkata. They organised rallies and blocked rail tracks and roads. Party secretary-general Partha Chatterjee denied the allegations of violence, and dubbed them as “concocted stories”.
Trinamool workers staged a demonstration in front of the housing complex in north Kolkata where Mr. Supriyo’s house is located. Nearly 100 cadres blocked the road in front of the housing complex, shouting slogans demanding Mr. Supriyo’s arrest.
Mr. Supriyo said, “My parents who live in the housing complex are fearing for safety. The manner in which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has unleashed her MPs and cadres on BJP workers in support of a Trinamool leader charged with corruption is unprecedented.”
Rail services hit
Apart from organising rail blockade in Kankurgachi, which disrupted rail services for about 40 minutes, Trinamool cadres blocked National Highway 60 connecting West Bengal and Odisha in Paschim Medinipur district, disrupting traffic for nearly an hour.
Trinamool workers led by Sujit Bose, MLA, held a protest in front of the CBI office at the CGO complex in Salt Lake. Protests led by Mr. Bandypadhyay’s wife and Trinamool MLA Nania Bandyopadhyay took place in Kolkata North.
The Trinamool took out protest rallies in Cooch Behar, Hooghly, East Medinipur, Malda, Canning in South 24 Parganas and Nadia. The cadres attacked BJP workers and vandalised several party offices across the State. “Since Wednesday morning, BJP offices were attacked in 17 places, including in Hooghly and Durgapur. We hope that the Centre and the State government will bring the situation under control,” BJP State president Dilip Ghosh said.
Police personnel block the road in front of the BJP State party office in light of protests over arrest of TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay, in Kolkata on Wednesday.
In several places in Cooch Behar district, TMC workers, armed with sticks, were seen vandalising BJP offices and smashing windowpanes. A local BJP leader in Cooch Behar, Ganesh Roy, was assaulted allegedly by TMC workers in the Kotwali police station area. “At 10 a.m. some Trinamool leaders asked me to come to the nearby party office. They punched and kicked me for nearly half an hour after which I fainted and was hospitalised by neighbours,” Mr. Roy told The Hindu . Several BJP offices in the Putimari Phuleswari area in Cooch Behar I block were vandalised and a BJP worker was assaulted on Tuesday.
In Hooghly district, Trinamool cadres set a BJP office on fire in the Chinsurah area. The BJP accused the police of inaction and said police personnel remained a “mute spectator” as the TMC cadres went on a rampage. “One such incident has been reported where some chairs at party office were burnt. We are looking into it,” Superintendent of Police of Hooghly, Sukesh Jain, told The Hindu, adding that no other case of violence took place in the district.
In Bauipur in South 24 Paraganas, a BJP office was attacked by TMC cadres and the BJP leadership alleged that six of its workers were injured.
