A fresh political row has broken out between Trinamul and the BJP over Vande Bharat Express following two incidents of stone-pelting at the train on Monday in Malda and on Tuesday near the New Jalpaiguri yard area.
On the Monday’s incident, the BJP claimed that the supporters of Bengal’s ruling party attacked the train to give a bad name to the new initiative of the prime minister. Trinamul, on the other hand, said that the BJP orchestrated the attack to gain political mileage.
On Monday, while the Howrah-bound train was moving through Kumarganj area near Samsi station of Malda, some people pelted stones at the train. As a result, the glass pane of a door and a window of one of the coaches (C 13) got damaged.
Later, Northeast Frontier Railway filed a case with the railway protection force. Also, the NFR is conducting an inquiry.
According to railway sources, around 5.57pm on Tuesday, as the Howrah bound train from NJP reached Malda Town station, it was found that some glass panes in two coaches (C3 and C6) were damaged.
Railway authorities did a probe. It was found that around 1.20pm, while the train was moving towards NJP from Howrah, the stone pelting occurred near the NJP yard area.
The BJP leaders, who have put every effort to reap political dividends using the launch of the new train service, were quick to criticise Trinamul.
“Earlier, on the NRC issue, we witnessed unprecedented violence in Malda when stations were vandalised and torched. We suspect those trouble-mongers were involved in Monday’s incident. The state government should act as the safety of train passengers gets compromised due to such attacks,” said state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, who was in Malda on Tuesday, demanded a probe by the NIA into the incident.
Trinamul leaders were quick to swat away the charges. Kunal Ghosh, state general secretary of the party, accused the BJP.
“They are desperate to gain political mileage and we suspect that they planned the attack to make it an issue. It is an unfortunate incident and our party never endorses such acts,” said Ghosh.
Senior railway officials said that they planned an awareness campaign.
“There will be public announcements in stations along Vande Bharat’s route to inform people that it is government property and people should refrain from illegal acts. The RPF has been asked to be on alert,” said an official.
On December 30, when the semi-high-speed train service was introduced between Howrah and New Jalpaiguri, there was a political uproar. Some BJP supporters at the inaugural even shouted the “Jai Sri Ram” slogans. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee refused to get on the dais and chose to sit next to it as a mark of protest.
