The BJP on Friday cancelled its eight day long state wide bike rally, after the party came under attack from alleged TMC workers at Binani Bhawan, Pathuriaghata Street in Kolkata.
Apart from this there were also reports of sloganeering TMC workers pelting stones at the BJP headquarter in Kolkata, which as per party state president Dilip Ghosh resulted in injuries to more than 10 BJP workers. The TMC workers are even reported to have beaten BJP workers using sticks. This incident happened at about 10:30 AM on Friday.
As per Dilip Ghosh, the TMC workers foiled the attempts of BJP workers to take out bike rallies by attacking them at several places, before announcing that the rally as a result stands cancelled. He claimed that the party would carry out a sit-in demonstration near the Gandhi statue in Kolkata to protest against this incident. The BJP leaders also claimed that they would meet Bengal’s Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to inform him of the incident, and demand President’s rule in the state.
The BJP had incidentally managed to take out that bike rally, only after the Calcutta High Court had upheld its single bench’s order to allow permission for this rally. Earlier permission was denied by the police.
There are other instances when the BJP has been targeted by TMC workers in the state.
In January, 2017 the BJP’s Hoogly office was set ablaze by alleged workers of the TMC. Two days prior to that the BJP’s Kolkata headquarter was attacked by members of TMC’s student wing, to protest against TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s arrest for his alleged involvement Rose Valley chit fund scam.
In May 2016, BJP leader Roopa Ganguly’s convoy was attacked by alleged TMC supporters near Diamond Harbour in South 24 parganas while she was returning from visiting a party worker who was believed to have been assaulted by TMC goons. Earlier in 2015 she was attacked by TMC workers in Kolkata’s posh Alipore area which was merely 500 metres away from CM Mamata Banerjee’s home.
