KOLKATA: In what appeared to be a rerun of its agitation two years ago, thousands of BJP supporters and hundreds of police personnel fought pitched battles at different parts of Kolkata and Howrah on Tuesday during the party’s protest march towards Nabanna, the state secretariat, against alleged scams and corruption involving the ruling Trinamool functionaries.
A police vehicle was set ablaze and several supporters of the party and the police received injuries.
The police lobbed tear gas shells and used water cannons to disperse BJP agitators who tried to go past the barricades on different roads leading to the state secretariat and pelted stones at the personnel in uniform.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the protest as a deflated balloon.
“No need to give importance to it,” she said dismissively.
At a violent BJP protest in 2020 a year after the party had dramatically raised its Lok Sabha seat tally to 18 from just two earlier, the police had applied similar methods to manage the crowds.
Tuesday’s protest march is said to be the BJP’s biggest ever since the arrests of Trinamool’s ex-minister Partha Chatterjee and its strongman Anubrata Mondal by central enforcement agencies.
Several BJP leaders, including the leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, MP Locket Chatterjee, state president Sukanta Majumdar and former state president Rahul Sinha were intercepted by the police and arrested.
Adhikari alleged that Mamata had turned West Bengal into North Korea.
“She does not have support, so she is enforcing dictatorship similar to North Korea,’’ he charged.
The BJP claimed at least 200 of its supporters were injured in police highhandedness and 50 of them had to be admitted to hospitals.
For its part, the police said 27 of its personnel were injured during crowd management and a hand of an assistant commissioner of police was fractured. Traffic in east and central Kolkata was paralysed due to the agitation.
Police lathicharge
The area in front of the BJP’s headquarters in Kolkata resembled a battlefield. The police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the agitators.
Several police officers and saffron camp members, including leaders Mina Devi Purohit and Swapan Dasgupta, were reportedly injured during the rally.
A Kolkata Police officer said, "There was no report of any serious injury to any protestor though several police personnel have suffered injuries".
While the BJP alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government does not want to give space to opposition parties, the TMC described the saffron camp workers as 'hooligans'.
Sharing a video of people carrying BJP flags setting ablaze a police vehicle, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee tweeted, "Today, not just Bengal but the nation saw a glimpse of what @BJP4Bengal hooligans are capable of doing to our City of Joy."
The saffron party's IT in-charge Amit Malviya shared another video of the same incident on his Twitter handle.
He said, "Mamata Banerjee sent TMC cadres to pelt stones at the police so that later BJP could be blamed for it."
The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the agitators, who tried to go past the barricades that were put in place at several points in Kolkata and its adjoining areas.
Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and party MP Locket Chatterjee were detained by the police even before the start of the rally.
"Everyone got to see how the partisan police tried scuttling a leader of the opposition's democratic right to protest outside Nabanna. I was manhandled by a woman constable, people saw that too," Adhikari told reporters before being whisked away in a prison van.
In Santragachhi in Howrah district, the police were pelted with stones as they chased away the protesters.
A police kiosk was damaged as the demonstrators were stopped from moving forward.
The pitched battle continued for several hours at Santragachhi as BJP activists went on throwing stones at the cops standing outside the station and police reinforcements were sent to quell the situation.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Howrah town, Kolkata's Lalbazar and MG Road areas where protesters engaged in a scuffle with the police.
Police used water cannons near Howrah bridge, Howrah Maidan area and Santragachhi.
Normal life was disrupted in Kolkata due to the protests, with common people facing huge inconveniences on the thoroughfares, many of which had plunged into chaos.
BJP leaders attacked the administration for the police action during its protest rally.
The party's state president Sukanta Majumdar staged a sit-in in Howrah after being stopped from taking forward the rally.
"This autocratic Mamata Banerjee government does not believe in giving space to opposition parties," he said.
The BJP state chief and senior leader Agnimitra Paul were later detained from a protest site at Howrah Maidan.
In a Twitter post, Malviya alleged that male police constables of Kolkata Police assaulted women protestors under the instructions of Mamata Banerjee.
Vowing to move court against the police action on BJP rallyists, Adhikari claimed, "This government will not last beyond January 2023."
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who led the protesters near Howrah bridge, left the site in the midst of a lathi-charge on his party's supporters.
"Only 15 per cent of the BJP workers could attend today's march to Nabanna as the rest were prevented from coming to the city and Howrah.
And yet see the impact.
Eighty per cent of state police had to be deployed with water cannons, batons, tear gas shells to tackle these 15 per cent party workers and supporters," BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told PTI.
The state's ruling party shared videos showing alleged BJP workers attacking a policeman with wooden rods and a police vehicle.
Abhishek Banerjee tweeted: "We shudder to imagine what they would've done had they come to power. WB, thank you for rejecting them! Now, it's time for India to reject them!"
"Destroying and damaging government property, attacking police personnel, causing chaos and disrupting peace across the state -- today's activities of BJP that brought shame upon the entire nation. We strongly condemn such outrageous behaviour," the TMC said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court sought a report from the West Bengal Home Secretary over the allegation that BJP supporters were forcibly prevented from attending its 'march to Nabanna' programme.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj also directed the state government to ensure the protection of the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata.
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday sought a report from the West Bengal Home Secretary over the allegation that BJP supporters were forcibly prevented from attending its 'march to Nabanna' programme.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj also directed the state government to ensure protection of the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata.
The bench directed the state authorities to ensure that no unnecessary arrest is made and no person is unnecessarily detained in connection with the rally.
The court directed the state Home Secretary to submit a report by September 19 over the allegations made by the BJP that its supporters were forcibly prevented from attending the rally.
The bench observed that peace and tranquility is required to be maintained.
The petitioner in his PIL claimed that BJP workers were forcibly prevented from attending Tuesday's rally and party leaders were attacked.
It was claimed that BJP workers were restrained from boarding trains and vehicles were stopped enroute to Kolkata and Howrah for attending the rally.
It was also alleged that party workers were attacked and prevented from entering or leaving the BJP state headquarters at Muralidhar Sen Lane here.
Petitioner's lawyer Subir Sanyal claimed that Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was arrested despite an earlier single bench order of the high court, which protected him from such action against him.
Advocate General SN Mookherjee claimed that section 144 imposed in the metropolitan area of Howrah was in force and that permission for the rally was not granted.
It was alleged that violent activities were resorted to by some participating in the rally.
He submitted that the order of single bench on protection to Adhikari was in respect of cases mentioned in it.
Mookherjee stated before the court that the leaders who were arrested during the protests were soon to be released on personal bond.
Adhikari, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee and other leaders were released on personal bond from Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, in the evening.
Parts of Kolkata and Howrah district turned into battlefields as BJP supporters clashed with the police while trying to get past barricades during their march to West Bengal secretariat 'Nabanna'.
A confusion was created amid West Bengal BJP's march to the secretariat when its senior leader Dilip Ghosh, who was leading one of the processions, announced "Nabanna rally is over" following a clash between the police and party workers, and left the place.
When Ghosh's comment "Nabanna abhiyaan sesh (Nabanna rally is over)" was conveyed to state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, he said, "Dilip da's procession might have been stopped and ended, but other processions are continuing."
The police also stopped Majumdar's rally and he sat down on the road in protest.
He was later detained and taken away by the police.
Ghosh later told PTI that his comment was misconstrued by the media.
"As the police used brute force to stop the procession led by me near the Howrah bridge leaving many injured, I declared our march to Nabanna is over. I did not talk about other processions," the former state BJP president said.
"While leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari and MP Locket Chatterjee were detained before the start of the rally, we and other leaders were very much on the ground and we are all united on the issue," Ghosh said.
BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said Ghosh made the remark when the procession led by him from the College Square area was stopped by the police using force.
"As one senior leader was assigned to lead each rally from different points in Howrah and Kolkata, it was not possible for Dilip-da to continue the protest elsewhere. Nothing more should be read into it," Bhattacharya said.
The TMC did not want to comment on the issue.
"The BJP's Nabanna Abhiyaan proved to be a flop show. They wanted to be in news by ransacking, damaging and setting aflame state properties. But the alert police force did not allow the situation to flare up further and foiled the BJP's game plan. There is nothing more to say about this," TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.
A police vehicle was set on fire, and several people, police personnel and BJP supporters, were injured during the protest rally.
Suvendu Adhikari took umbrage at police women trying to detain him on Tuesday amid a protest march by his party as he was heard shouting "don't touch me" on being forced to board a prison van.
Adhikari was stopped near Police Training School in Hastings area, where barricades were put up to block the BJP supporters from moving towards state secretariat 'Nabanna' in Howrah.
"Don't touch me. You are a woman," he said as some female police personnel were trying to escort him to the prison van.
Asserting that he was a "law-abiding citizen", Adhikari demanded that male police officers be called for speaking to him.
Adhikari was thereafter escorted to the prison van by DCP (South) Akash Magharia.
He later said that he did not retort, despite being "manhandled", as he respects women.
"I see Maa Durga in the eyes of every woman," Adhikari was heard saying in a video posted on Facebook by party MP Locket Chatterjee, who was also detained along with him and BJP leader Rahul Sinha.
(With PTI Inputs)