West Bengal: Violence erupts

Kolkata, Dec 10 (UNI) Two people, including BJP Diamond Harbour Town president Surjit Haldar, were injured in an attack ahead of BJP All India President JP Nadda’s meeting in Diamond Harbour.
Allegedly, Trinamool activists attacked BJP workers while they were putting party flags in “Notun Pole” ahead of Nadda’s rally to push anti-Trinamool ‘Aar Noi Annay’ (No more injustices) campaign in the state. The injured were rushed to Diamond Super specialty Hospital.
However, the TMC has rejected the allegations.
Nadda is on a two-day state visit as part of BJP’s campaign to oust the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal.
Reacting to the attack BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC was behaving as if all hell would break loose if the saffron party campaigned in Diamond Harbour, as if it was the last bastion which the ruling party was defending with all its might.
BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy said the state was under “Jungle Raj” and there was a government but only in name. Today’s incident draws significance as the ruling TMC is faced with a tough challenge of containing BJP’s progress ahead of the high voltage West Bengal assembly elections in 2021.
The BJP all-India president arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday on a two-day visit to the state with the 2021 assembly election in mind.
Nadda had to face strong protest yesterday as well when he went to inaugurate BJP’s new office in Kolkata’s Hastings.
According to sources, the party office in Hastings is going to be the control room of the state BJP in the Assembly elections of ’21, not Muralidhar Sen Lane. The BJP leaders will monitor the voting process sitting here!
Protesters held black flags in front of Nadda and chanted slogans against the Centre’s agricultural policy.
Despite the presence of several policemen at the spot within moments the situation became heated and a clash erupted between and protesters erupted. The situation further worsened as BJP leader Rakesh Singh reached the spot with a bunch of BJP supporters.
The BJP has alleged that the protests were organised by the ruling TMC to disrupt Nadda’s visit. However, BJP’s claims have been rejected by TMC, which said the demonstrators gathered to attract Nadda’s attention towards protest against the farm laws.
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah Centre pointing out lapses in Nadda’s security arrangement by the state government. At least 200 miscreants had reached Hastings armed with bamboo sticks, Ghosh alleged in the letter.