KOLKATA, Oct 10: Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP were engaged in a verbal duel on Monday over clashes between two groups in Khidderpore-Mominpur area of Kolkata that left several people injured.
The saffron camp claimed that law and order have worsened in West Bengal, drawing a sharp retort from the ruling TMC, which accused the BJP of trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar tried to visit the area on Monday but was stopped at Chingrighata area of east Kolkata and asked to return as prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr PC had been clamped in the area. He was later arrested.
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Police said that two groups clashed in the area on Sunday evening over some local issues in which several people were injured. Police personnel, including those of the Rapid Action Force, were deployed and Section 144 Cr PC was imposed in the area from Sunday night.
“Sukanta Majumdar was later arrested and taken to Lalbazar police headquarters. The area is now under Section 144 Cr PC but he was adamant about going there. We tried to persuade him, but it did not yield any result,” a senior police official said.
“I have written to Hon’ble Union Home Minister Shri@AmitShah Ji & Hon’ble Governor Shri La Ganesan Ji requesting them to urgently deploy central forces in the wake of Mominpur violence and ransacking of Ekbalpur police station before the law and order situation of West Bengal gets out of hand,” Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari tweeted.
TMC hit out at the saffron camp for allegedly trying to “vitiate the atmosphere in the state”. Its senior leader Sougata Roy said the police had taken all the steps needed to bring the situation under control.
“The miscreants involved in the incident have been arrested. What will Sukanta Majumdar do by going there apart from giving hate speeches? The BJP is trying to vitiate the atmosphere of the state. The BJP should stop politicising every incident,” Roy said.
Later in the afternoon, Adhikari took out a protest march from the West Bengal state assembly to Raj Bhawan to register BJP’s protest against the arrest of Majumdar.
“We had come to the governor to register our protest. Is this the way a state president of the main opposition party is treated? The state government has completely failed to control the situation,” he said.
The party also took out a protest march from its state headquarters in central Kolkata to the city police headquarters at Lalbazar. BJP cadres in various parts of the state squatted on roads and important intersections, demanding the immediate release of Majumdar.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh accused BJP of trying to disturb the peace in the state.
“The BJP, out of its political frustration in West Bengal, is trying to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the state. The people of Bengal have rejected the hate politics of the saffron camp (in the assembly election) and will continue to do so,” he added. (PTI)
