On Tuesday, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha, and Member of Parliament Locket Chatterjee were detained by the West Bengal Police ahead of the ‘Nabanna Cholo’ (march to secretariat) mega rally by the BJP. The leaders were taken to the Kolkata Police headquarters located in the Lalbazar area of Kolkata.
According to the reports, BJP had staged the massive ‘Nabanna Cholo’ march to condemn the TMC-led government and its alleged corrupt practices in the state of West Bengal. Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, was detained on September 13 while attempting to visit Santragachi during the BJP’s street protest in front of the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’. Other BJP leaders like MP Locket Chatterjee and party leader Rahul Sinha, Taapshi Mondol, and Dibankar Gharami were also detained and taken away in a prison vehicle.
#WATCH | West Bengal: Police detain BJP leaders including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha and MP Locket Chatterjee from Hastings in Kolkata ahead of BJP’s Nabanna Chalo march
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2022
Leaders taken to Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar pic.twitter.com/aPgJm7q6Dn
On Tuesday morning, BJP supporters from all over the state began pouring into Kolkata and neighboring Howrah to take part in BJP’s ‘Nabanna Chalo’ march to protest against the alleged corrupt practices of the state government. Reports mention that the West Bengal Police denied permission for the rally and stopped many BJP workers from participating in the rallies. The Police also arrested thousands of BJP workers.
Taking cognizance of the event, Sukanta Majumdar, the Bengal BJP head stated that the police in the state were behaving like the governing Trinamool Congress cadres and that there was no need for permission to march to the secretariat. As per the BJP’s plan, rallies from three places would attempt to reach Nabanna, the state headquarters. LOP Suvendu Adhikari was supposed to lead a rally from Satraganchi, while Sukanta Majumdar, the party’s state president, was supposed to lead one from Howrah Maidan. Meanwhile, Dilip Ghosh, a former state BJP head was supposed to lead the workers from College Street.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari criticised the Police action and slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led government for deliberately trying to crush a democratic political event. “The barricade of steel raised at Santragachi symbolizes her anxiety and timidity. Remember this Mamata Banerjee, no wall can stand up to the wave of democracy, it would be breached sooner than later,” Adhikari tweeted.
“CM Mamata doesn’t have the support of her people and so she is enforcing dictatorship, similar to North Korea in Bengal. Police will have to pay for what it’s been doing since yesterday, BJP is coming”, the Leader of the Opposition added.
#WATCH | WB: “CM Mamata doesn’t have the support of her people & so she is enforcing dictatorship, similar to North Korea in Bengal… Police will have to pay for what it’s been doing since y’day, BJP is coming,” says LoP Suvendu Adhikari ahead of BJP’s Nabanna Chalo march pic.twitter.com/Qj6v0041zQ
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2022
After the West Bengal Police detained several BJP leaders ahead of the rally, BJP workers commenced the marches from Howrah Maidan and College Street, and the protesting workers from Santragachi are said to have clashed with police. The workers reached the Police headquarters in the Lalbazar area and also protested against the action taken against several BJP leaders including LOP Suvendu Adhikari. The Police then deployed water cannons and lobbed tear gas shells at the protesters to disperse them. The Police also lathi-charged BJP workers in Santragachi, Howrah Maidan, Mahatma Gandhi Road, and Rabindra Sarani.
Several BJP workers are said to have sustained injuries in the Police attack. BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta has also been reportedly injured amid the party’s mega-protest in West Bengal against Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. As police cracked down on the ‘Nabanna Chalo’ march participants, visuals going viral over social media show a tired Dasgupta resting on a seat with the left side of his body coated in dirt.
“They fired tear gas shells and lathi-charged protestors. I got pushed by a policeman. A peaceful demonstration was attacked in this fashion. They also attacked BJP workers in Howrah and Santragachi. This was a march against corruption. This was a march against those looting the exchequer. The initial attack was by police. It looked like a pattern the way police attacked”, Dasgupta said after the attack.
Dasgupta also slammed the TMC-led government and stated that the whole country should know the true face of this Bengal government. “Stashes of cash were found from their associates. People can form their own conclusions. This is becoming an illegitimate government”, he was quoted.
Meanwhile, Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar also claimed that crude bombs and stones were hurled at his party workers. Majumdar who was supposed to lead the march from the Howrah Maidan was also detained by the Bengal Police. Before detention, the BJP leader happened to talk to Republic TV to mention that the West Bengal Police was using force upon the direction of Mamata Banerjee. “They are entering every station and beating up our workers”, he said.
Clashes erupted between the BJP workers and the Police inside the Bolpur railway station and at several other locations including Birbhum, Durgapur, Sealdah, Santragachi, Howrah, Nandigram, and Barakar. Reports mention that the BJP protesters were carrying out a peaceful demonstration when they were baton-charged by the West Bengal Police.
