Kolkata, Howrah turn warzone as BJP march to secretariat turns violent

Parts of Kolkata and Howrah district turned into a battlefield on Tuesday as Bharatiya Janata Party supporters clashed with the police while trying to get past barricades erected to prevent them from marching towards the West Bengal secretariat ‘Nabanna'.

Several police officers and saffron camp members, including leaders Mina Devi Purohit and Swapan Dasgupta, were reportedly injured during the rally organised to protest against the alleged corrupt practices of the Trinamool Congress government.

Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari, the party's Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee and senior leader Rahul Sinha and several other leaders were detained.

While the BJP alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government does not want to give space to opposition parties, the ruling TMC described the saffron camp workers as ’hooligans'.

A Kolkata police officer said, "There was no report of any serious injury to any protestors though several police personnel have suffered injuries."

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.

"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. In Lalbazar, a police vehicle was set on fire.

The 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.

Majumdar also claimed that it was a shame that the police were acting in a partisan manner, further claiming that "some of them have turned into puppets of ruling TMC".

The BJP state chief and senior leader Agnimitra Paul were later detained from a protest site at Howrah Maidan.

Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP leaders were later released on personal bond.

Vowing to move the 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.

"Our fight against this jungle raj will continue," Ghosh said.

"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.

He claimed that scores of party workers and senior leaders were manhandled and injured in police attacks and BJP would reveal the figure tomorrow.

Seven trains were hired by the BJP to bring its supporters from the northern and southern parts of West Bengal on Monday for the protest march to 'Nabanna'.

The TMC tweeted, "@BJP4Bengal karyakartas or hooligans?"

The state's ruling party shared videos showing alleged BJP workers attacking a policeman with wooden rods and a police vehicle.

"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 party said in a tweet.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged that the BJP was fomenting trouble under the garb of protest.

"It is part of a bigger game plan to destabilise West Bengal this festive season. This is not a democratic movement. This is goondaism," he added.