KOLKATA: A group of BJP supporters shouting 'Goli Maro…' headed towards Shahid Minar ground where Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a rally in Kolkata.
The slogan was raised when the BJP supporters reached Esplanade a few hundred metres from Shahid Minar ground where police were deployed in heavy numbers.
As the news of the slogan spread across the city, opposition parties criticised the police who were present there for not taking any action. The CPM leaders demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
The BJP has drawn flak since Delhi Assembly elections for use of instigating slogan at the party’s meetings and rallies during the poll campaign. Union minister Anurag Thakur was heard egging a crowd to raise the slogan.
The BJP supporters who started marching from party's state headquarters on CR Avenue were initially shouting slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai and chanting Jai Shri Ram.
As they reached at Esplanade, where the Left Front and Ultra Left supporters had assembled to protest against Shah’s Kolkata visit, the BJP supporters decided changed their slogan.
The police escorted the supporters to the entrance of the rally venue.
CPM’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said the state government should identify the BJP supporters and book them under stringent provisions of Indian penal Code.
"Kolkata has never heard such slogan that spreads hatred. We condemn it and demand immediate lawful action against the culprits," he said.