The Trinamool Congress claimed on Friday that certain Left and far-Left forces plotted to attack the junior doctors demonstrating off Swasthya Bhavan in Salt Lake to malign the Mamata Banerjee government.

Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh — deemed a mouthpiece of the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — played at a news conference an audio clip of a purported conversation between two persons planning to attack junior doctors upon the return of their delegation from Nabanna on Thursday night.

“A huge conspiracy is being revealed now…. This plot would have been used to cast further doubt on the state government and the chief minister,” said Ghosh.

“They planned to attack the junior doctors at their protest site. Goons were being brought from outside so that the entire blame for the attack could have been passed on to the state government,” he added.

“This plot was hatched by a Left-leaning youth organisation and an extreme
Left personality.”

A section of junior doctors has been conducting a sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan, the state’s health department headquarters, for the past four days, demanding the removal of top officials of the department, besides a cleanse of the medical education system.

The purported conversation in the clip hints at such a plot. Ghosh claimed he secured the clip from his sources in the Left and far-Left organisations.

“This audio clip makes it abundantly clear that some people wanted to attack the junior doctors last night, and they might still be at large so that they can execute their conspiracy again,” he claimed.

“We have asked the police and security agencies to be on high alert, to ensure it does not take place…. We hope to peacefully resolve the issue before anything untoward happens,” added Ghosh. “No outsider should be able to get to the venue of the demonstration.”

A delegation of the junior doctors on the sit-in off Swasthya Bhavan had gone to Nabanna on Thursday for parleys with the chief minister, but the meeting did not take place because the state government did not agree to the agitators’ demand to live-stream the talks.

“Prominent anti-Trinamool personalities are trying to befriend the junior doctors and misguide them so that this misunderstanding continues,” said Ghosh.

“To the junior doctors, who are like our own kids… all I want to say is that such plots are being made to use them. They want to harm junior doctors because it will be their political gain,” he added. “The police have already started investigating this matter…. Who will take responsibility if something is mixed in the food that is being donated to them? Everyone will start blaming the government.”

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty rubbished the claims and accused Trinamool of levelling the allegation to distract people from the undying popular rage since the junior doctor’s rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

“They are scared. They have tried their best but failed miserably to make this go away. These are juvenile diversionary tactics that the people see right through,” said Chakraborty.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said if anybody tried harming the protesting junior doctors, they would be taught a lesson they would never forget.