The BJP’s target of a turnout of over 2 lakh at the Nabanna Abhiyan or march to state secretariat fell short by a remarkable margin on Tuesday, with liberal estimates suggesting that only around 45,000 to 50,000 party workers took part.
Around 10,000 to 15,000 joined the rally from Santragachi. The rallies that took off from Howrah Maidan and College Square had around 15,000 people each, according to sources present there.
Even taking into account the saffron camp’s allegations of police excesses to prevent supporters from reaching the event, the crowd count was way short of the target the BJP had set for itself.
“We had targeted 1,000 to 1,200 persons from each of the 54 constituencies in north Bengal. For south Bengal, every organisational district was asked to chip in with 20,000 to 25,000 supporters,” a BJP MLA said. “If we managed to live up to expectations, irrespective of police atrocities we could have brought one lakh to 1.5 lakh people. But we were nowhere close.”
The BJP alleged that police set up barricades in front of many railway stations and resorted to checking tickets to identify BJP supporters, stopped them from boarding trains or took them into custody.
At some stations, police hopped on trains to drag out BJP supporters, alleged a leader of the saffron camp.
Darjeeling’s BJP MP Raju Bista and junior Union minister Subhas Sarkar said they had brought the incidents to the notice of Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
“I spoke to several senior officers at the railway department and the RPF as well. They are also very unhappy with the way the state police violated their jurisdiction,” Sarkar told The Telegraph.
Other BJP leaders claimed that several party workers on buses and cars and headed towards Calcutta were stopped on state and national highways. They claimed police were aided by Trinamul supporters to stop BJP workers.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed “over 1.5 lakh people” were restricted from reaching Calcutta, a claim that many in his party did not buy.
State BJP chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya admitted that they had been able to gather around 20 per cent of targeted crowd for the march, but blamed the police for using their “entire force” to stop people from coming.
Trinamul, however, refuted the BJP's claims. Party veteran and state minister Firhad Hakim said there was no need to stop BJP supporters since the party doesn’t enjoy people’s support.
“On the contrary, the BJP hired goons from other states and brought them to Bengal to disrupt law and order,” he added.
Speaking to a TV channel on the sidelines of a Trinamul meeting in West Midnapore’s Kharagpur, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the BJP’s balloon had run out of gas.
She said this to describe the BJP’s much-hyped “flop show” on Tuesday.
She said there was no point in paying much importance to the BJP in Bengal.
“There was no crowd at their event,” she said and asked party’s Tamluk MLA Soumen Mahapatra to visit the residence of a party worker who was allegedly heckled by BJP supporters on Tuesday.
