Trinamul will uproot the BJP from Tripura in next year’s Assembly polls as the Biplab Deb government’s days are numbered, thundered Trinamul all-India general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday evening.
Abhishek said this before boarding a chartered flight from Agartala in which he returned to Calcutta with 14 Trinamul leaders who were arrested in the morning and later released on bail in the neighbouring state.
“Trinamul knows how to defeat the BJP.… The law-and-order situation in Tripura has broken down. The police here arrested those who were beaten up. The Biplab Deb government’s days are numbered. Trinamul will uproot the BJP from Tripura,” Abhishek told reporters at the end of an action-packed day in Tripura, the latest battleground between Trinamul and the BJP.
Abhishek, who became the Trinamul all India general general secretary in June with the task to expand the party’s presence beyond Bengal, reached Agartala on Sunday morning and went to Khowai police station, where the 14 arrested Trinamul leaders had been taken.
Although he planned to stay for another day, he flew to Calcutta with the party leaders as some needed medical attention, said a party source.
Those arrested included those injured in the Saturday afternoon attack by suspected BJP supporters on a Trinamul delegation at Dolubari in Tripura’s Dhalai district. Khowai is some 60km from Dolubari and 55km from Agartala.
Ashish Lal Singh, a senior Tripura Trinamul leader told this paper that police detained Trinamul leaders around 10pm on Saturday and arrested them around 5am on Sunday. “We were not offered food and were harassed. We got bail from a special court in Khowai around 6pm. Our leaders from Bengal, Debangshu Bhattacharya, Sudip Raha and Jaya Dutta, were among those arrested. We were stopped by the police in Khowai, apprehending more attacks on us on our way back to Agartala through NH9,” Singh said.
Trinamul leaders said the police told them to stay put in Khowai for safety. “The same police later arrested them on charges of flouting night curfew norms.… You can well imagine the state of affairs in Tripura,” said Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
Throughout the day, Trinamul leaders alleged the breakdown of law and order in Tripura as visuals of the attack on party leaders were uploaded on social media. Abhishek stayed put at Khowai police station till his colleagues got bail.
Some purported videos from inside the police station showed scenes of heated exchange between Abhishek and some police officers. “You have an Ashoka Stambha (the national emblem) on your uniform, not a lotus (the BJP symbol),” he was heard telling a policeman.
Trinamul leaders said they would raise the issue in Parliament on Monday.
Before leaving for Calcutta, Abhishek said he would keep coming back to Tripura to rid the state of the BJP’s misrule. “Let me see who can stop us,” he said.
Trinamul got unexpected support from the Tripura CPM, which condemned Saturday’s attack on the visiting delegation of Mamata’s party.
The Bengal BJP mocked Abhishek’s claims and said Trinamul didn’t have any presence in Tripura. “This kind of drama will not yield anything for them,” said Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
BJP’s Tripura spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said the police did their duty. “Our government and police have been exercising a lot of retrains. Did you see how Trinamul’s Calcutta’s leaders misbehaved with the police officer inside the Khowai police station. It is a criminal offence. We have been tolerant so far.”
He alleged that suspected Trinamul members had indulged in vandalism in Ambassa, about 15km from Dolubari, on Saturday.
He went on to add that Trinamul was not a factor politically but they were really amused by the conduct of their Calcutta leaders.
