BJP’s bandh evokes mixed response in state amid sporadic violence

PTI, KOLKATA, AUG 28, 2024  :  Sporadic instances of violence marked the BJP-sponsored 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on Wednesday, which had a mixed impact in the wake of bandh supporters clashing with the police and ruling Trinamool Congress workers at several pockets of the state. The most significant of these clashes was reported from Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district, where the BJP alleged that TMC goons fired multiple rounds on its local leader Priyangu Pandey’s car and shared a purported video of the crime on social media platforms. Although Pandey escaped unhurt, the vehicle’s driver and a party worker sustained bullet injuries on their heads and were admitted to a private hospital, BJP leaders claimed.

Police said that the two men were beaten up by some people outside the local Anglo-India Jute Mill. The violence was followed by a showdown between local BJP leader Arjun Singh and his TMC counterpart Somnath Shyam, with both leaders and their supporters standing face to face in altercation, further triggering tensions and the police finding it tough to disperse the warring groups. "Miscreants owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress fired the shots. If police are not around we will show TMC what people's power looks like," Singh said. Shyam countered by saying that the BJP leader was trying to “incite violence in a peaceful area.”

Several BJP leaders, including former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya, and MLA Agnimitra Paul, were detained for blocking roads and urging people to enforce the bandh since morning. The 'Bangla Bandh', which began at 6 am, was called to protest Tuesday's police action on participants of 'Nabanna Abhijan' or march to the secretariat, organised by the newly formed students' group Chatra Samaj over the alleged rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital.

The shutdown partially affected daily life in the state, with many people choosing to remain indoors apprehending trouble outside. In Kolkata, the usual weekday flurry was missing with a smaller number of buses, auto-rickshaws, and taxis plying. Ganguly and Paul were detained from south Kolkata's Gariahat area when they were urging traders to down their shutters and requesting people to support the bandh. Chatterjee, along with party leaders Rahul Sinha and Tamaghna Ghosh, were detained from Shyambazar, while Bhattacharya was picked up in Salt Lake.

Kolkata's councillor Sajal Ghosh was arrested from his residence after BJP workers scuffled with TMC supporters while trying to enforce the bandh in the nearby Koley Market. His wife, Tania Ghosh, alleged that police held him without a warrant. Later, Deputy Commissioner (Central) Indira Mukherjee said Ghosh was arrested for making provocative comments. State BJP president and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar led a procession at Baguihati in the northern fringes of the city and had an altercation with the police who tried to stop him. Former MP Debasree Choudhury and hundreds of party workers accompanied him. Majumdar later went to central Kolkata and blocked the CR Avenue outside the state BJP headquarters along with his supporters. He had heated arguments with senior police officers who swung into action to clear the arterial road.

In north Bengal's Alipurduar, BJP MP Manoj Tigga was arrested for enforcing the bandh. In Cooch Behar, party MLAs Malati Rava Roy and Nikhil Ranjan Dey were among those arrested, police said. An Eastern Railway official said bandh supporters blocked tracks at 49 places under its jurisdiction in the state in both Sealdah and Howrah divisions. While the blockades were lifted at most places, it continued for longer durations in nine stations, mostly in the Sealdah South section, he said. BJP workers demonstrated at various stations in North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia, and Murshidabad districts in support of the bandh. Suburban railway services were also disrupted when bandh supporters dropped banana leaves on overhead electrical wires at various places, railway officials confirmed.

Reports of clashes between BJP and TMC workers were received from the government bus stand area in Balurghat, from Hooghly’s Konnagar, and Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman.