KOLKATA: Expressing deep concern over the law and order situation in BJP-ruled West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress faction led by former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and state Governor R N Ravi, seeking separate meetings with them.
The letters came hours after party MP Abhishek Banerjee alleged that ruling party workers vandalised the TMC office on Camac Street early Thursday morning.
The former ruling party, Trinamool Congress, has been alleging a ‘deteriorating’ law and order situation in West Bengal since the BJP came to power in the state in May.
The Trinamool Congress leadership belonging to the Mamata Banerjee camp plans to meet Murmu and Ravi to convey their allegations regarding the ‘deteriorating’ law and order situation in West Bengal, particularly after the change of guard in the state.
According to party insiders in the Mamata Banerjee camp, they want to draw the attention of both the President and the Governor, the two constitutional heads of the country and the state respectively, to the law and order situation and the alleged high-handedness of the police in the state.
They also alleged that BJP workers have been hurling stones and eggs at former ruling party leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Sougata Roy, Mahua Moitra and others, in different incidents across the state.
Today, Abhishek alleged that the attackers, whom he described as “BJP hooligans, armed with weapons”, assaulted people inside the office at Camac Street, snatched phones, smashed furniture and destroyed electronic equipment.
He also shared CCTV footage and videos purportedly showing the aftermath of the incident. The CCTV footage shared by Abhishek purportedly shows masked men inside the premises carrying television screens and other electronic equipment out of the office.
Abhishek termed the alleged attack “a disgraceful assault on the rule of law.”
Sharing a video, the Trinamool Congress MP from Diamond Harbour wrote in an X post, “At around 4.30 am, BJP hooligans, armed with weapons, stormed our party office in the heart of Kolkata. They attacked our people, snatched their phones, smashed furniture, ransacked the premises and destroyed electronic equipment.”
Abhishek accused Kolkata Police of failing to respond for nearly two hours despite repeated calls and emails from TMC workers and lawyers.
“And where was Kolkata Police? For nearly TWO HOURS, despite repeated calls and emails from our people and lawyers, there was no response. This is outrageous and unacceptable,” he said on X.
“We demand the immediate arrest of every person involved in this attack. We also demand an investigation into who planned, organised and directed this violence, and why the police failed to act despite being repeatedly informed. No political party and no group of armed hooligans can be above the law,” Mamata’s nephew added.
He further questioned the state of law and order in Bengal, saying, “If people can storm a political party office with weapons at 4.30 in the morning, assault people and vandalise property while the police remain absent, then what exactly is left of the rule of law in West Bengal?”
“Enough is enough. Arrest the perpetrators. Fix accountability. Act now.”
On August 27 evening, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), along with Kolkata Police, dismantled a huge allegedly unauthorised billboard of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) installed on the rooftop of Abhishek’s office on the sixth floor of a high-rise building on Camac Street, despite him, along with his private security personnel, office staff and Derek O’Brien, preventing the civic body team and police from entering the building.
KMC workers armed with hammers and gas cutters started the operation to dismantle the billboard, which was made of tin sheets on an iron-rod structure.
