Clashes have marked the outreach programmes launched by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this week in poll-bound West Bengal.
Violence have been making headlines ever since the BJP emerged as the ruling party’s principal adversary during the panchayat polls in 2018. The clashes peaked around the Lok Sabha polls last year. The assembly elections are due in about five months. The BJP has alleged that 120 of its workers have murdered in the state since the panchayat polls.
On Saturday, the Barabani area of West Burdwan district was rocked by clashes between supporters of the two parties. Lakshman Ghorui, president of the BJP’s district unit alleged that five of his workers sustained bomb and bullet injuries when they were attacked by criminals backed by the TMC.
“Our workers assembled around noon for a procession planned as part of the ar noi anyay (no more injustice) programme. They were attacked without provocation. One worker was hit by a bullet,” said Ghorui.
Hitting back, Jitendra Tiwari, the TMC district president, said: “It is a false allegation. The clash took place between two rival groups of the BJP. Our party is not involved at all.”
TMC’s local lawmaker Bidhan Upadhyay, on the other hand, alleged that workers of the ruling party were attacked by the BJP at Jamgram when they were visiting homes as part of the “duware sarkar (government at the doorstep)” programme launched by chief minister Mamata Banerjee earlier this week. A large police contingent headed by Manav Singla, assistant commissioner of Asansol-Durgapur Police rushed to the spot to control the situation.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya went to a private hospital in Durgapur on Saturday evening to see the injured party worker.
“The situation is now under control,” a senior police officer of the district said on condition of anonymity on Sunday. “The BJP approached the police to seek permission for its programme but it was not given to avoid tension since both parties wanted to hit the streets in the same area,” he added.
In a similar incident, several BJP workers were allegedly beaten up at Sitai in the north Bengal’s Cooch Behar district on Saturday. Nisith Pramanik, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Cooch Behar, alleged that bombs were hurled by TMC workers when BJP workers were taking part in the ar noi anyay programme.
Noor Alam Hussain, the karmadhakshya of the TMC-controlled zilla parishad, denied the allegation and said the clash took place between rival groups of the BJP.
Kolkata, too, witnessed some tension between two factions of the TMC in north Kolkata during a “duware sarkar” camp. There was however no violence.
