Trinamool Congress goons attacked a NewsX journalist Tapas Sengupta in Barrackpore, West Bengal, just days after the Editors Guild chief Shekhar Gupta justified TMC’s violence in Bengal. He had even showered praises on Mamata Banerjee for fighting ‘fire with fire, venom with venom’.
Editors Guild Treasurer and Editor, News affairs, NewsX Channel Sheela Bhatt took to Twitter to express shock at the incident.
https://twitter.com/sheela2010/status/1125349859911843841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
She tweeted that TMC workers attacked Sengupta who sent her a message that he has been injured and his car has been vandalised. Sengupta was also ‘bleeding from head’ as per the text message he sent Bhatt.
Just two days back, Sheela Bhatt’s colleague at Editors Guild had justified this very violence by saying, “Fight fire with fire, venom with venom… Mamata in Bengal shows how the offence is the best defence to stop the Modi-Shah cavalry…”
The voting in Bengal has been marred by political violence. Earlier today BJP candidate from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, was reportedly attacked by goons associated with the Trinamool Congress. BJP District President in Hooghly, Pranab Mondal Saha, has alleged that he was thrashed by Trinamool goons while he was on his way to meet a fellow member of the party Khokon Biswas.
Places like Birbhum and Asansol in West Bengal which went into polling during the fourth phase of elections reported rampant rigging with TMC leaders accompanying voters in the voting booth. Moreover, there were reports of massive violence from Asansol. Crude bombs have been found at a polling booth in Krishnanagar, West Bengal and also bombs have been recovered from a polling booth in Santipur, Nadia district. Also, Central forces, journalists, villagers along with a Union Minister were reportedly attacked in Dubrajpur district.
In phase 4 of voting, journalists were attacked by TMC goons for trying to expose the political violence in Bengal. Eventually, owing to the rampant violence in first four phases, 100% central forces cover was given in the fifth phase of voting in Bengal.