West Bengal: BJP inducts 17 Darjeeling councillors, now holds majority in local body

17 Councillors of Darjeeling Municipality join Bharatiya Janata Party in presence of Shri @KailashOnline. pic.twitter.com/yElRjWuNmF

— BJP (@BJP4India) June 8, 2019

Roy also accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of using police to harass the elected members and their supporters. Read in Bangla

“Our battle to save democracy in the state continues. People’s mandate went against the chief minister in the Lok Sabha polls, but she is now using ‘police raj’ to harass BJP workers and supporters,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The BJP will organise a big demonstration in the hill state in the coming days, Roy added.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is the party’s in-charge for the state, has also targeted Banerjee for her alleged attack on various institutions. In his first meet with elected representatives and state office bearers after the Lok Sabha election, Vijayvargiya, had lashed out at the Bengal CM for being “an arrogant administrator”.

“We don’t know whether the TMC government will be able to continue in Bengal till 2021,” he had said.

The Trinamool Congress, which lost 12 seats it held in the general election, faced another jolt when two legislators and a majority of councillors in four municipalities switched to the BJP after the results.

(Inputs from PTI)