The Left and its mass organisations marched twice to Lalbazar in a span of four days demanding the resignation of police commissioner Vineet Goyal over the junior doctor’s rape and murder and the punishment of those involved in the crime.

But the BJP remains largely missing in action in the city with top leaders preferring to hold protests outside Calcutta.

After the September 9 march of CPM’s mass organisations — SFI, DYFI and AIDWA — to Lalbazar, it took the Left only four days to hit the same route to demand the removal of Goyal.

Led by senior leaders, including Biman Bose, Md. Salim, Sujan Chakraborty, Swapan Banerjee and Narendranath Chatterjee, the Left Front stuck to the programme even though CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury passed away in New Delhi on Thursday and the party was in a state of mourning.

“We all know that Trinamul goons were present at the scene of the crime to destroy evidence and vandalised the hospital in the presence of DC (North) on the night of August 14 when everyone was protesting. The police said thousands had entered the hospital but we gave them pictures and videos identifying around 23 persons who took part in the vandalism. As the videos were being telecast by TV channels, (chief minister) Mamata Banerjee said those were fake. We want to ask the police who gave you the instruction to hush up those videos,” CPM state secretary Md. Salim said.

He was addressing the gathering which had occupied B.B. Ganguly Street in Bowbazar after the marchers were stopped around 4pm on Friday by 9ft tall steel barricades the police had set up.

“We have no intention to break the barricades but will occupy the streets till at least 5pm on Saturday. The police commissioner has no right to occupy the chair for one more minute considering what he has done in the RG Kar incident. He must go,” said a senior CPM leader.

CPM’s frontal organisations representing teachers, professors, cultural personalities, app cab drivers, government employees, and lawyers have been keeping the streets abuzz with protests.

“Before the September 9 march to Lalbazar, the Left Front had marched from Rajabazar to Shyambazar.... We have been able to strike a chord with the common people on the issue and it is reflected in the support that DYFI-SFI-AIDWA is getting as they continue theirindefinite dharna near Shyambazar five-point crossing. Sensing the people’s mood, the Left Front had responded to the call of the doctors to switch off lights and sound on September 9 which marked one month after the doctor’s rape and murder,” said the CPM leader and added that similar protests were happening across the state.

While the Left has decided to continue and intensify its protest, the BJP is not seen in action in Calcutta despite leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s announcement to take out marches to Kalighat (Mamata Banerjee’s residence), Nabanna and Lalbazar on the same day.

Adhikari was on Friday leading a rally 45km away at Naihati in North 24-Parganas where protesters were beaten up on September 8 allegedly by TMC supporters during a show of solidarity with the junior doctors’ strike.

“On 8th September, Sunday, an apolitical Protest March was held in Naihati; North 24 Parganas district, seeking justice for the RG Kar PGT Lady Doctor……. Suddenly, some miscreants who intruded the procession, posing as protesters, turned violent and created ruckus and eventually beat up the protestors. They didn’t even spare the Ladies and even roughed them up and molested them,” Adhikari wrote on hisX handle.

Asked why the BJP was not seen on the streets of Calcutta despite being the state’s main Opposition party, a member of the party’s state committee said: “It is a fact that the protests have been spontaneous so far. But we have found that Leftists have infiltrated the spontaneous people’s protests and raising ‘azadi’ slogans exposed that.”

“Our MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay was chased when he went to show solidarity with the junior doctors who had marched to Lalbazar. Even our MLA Agnimitra Paul had to face ‘go-back’ slogans. We do not want such embarrassment. Therefore, the focus now is to take the protests outside Calcutta in rural areas and use the issue to strengthen our organisation.”

But Adhikari said in Naihati that the BJP would launch a larger movement against the government in the coming days. “Let the government touch junior doctors, we will show what the BJP can do,” he said.