Police on Monday prevented Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar from visiting Rishra in Hooghly district where a clash had broken out during a Ram Navami procession led by the party's national vice-president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday.
The BJP organised demonstrations at several places in the state on Monday over the clashes during Ram Navami processions as the saffron camp purportedly sought to engender a polarisation before polls.
The decision to take to the streets is part of the BJP's multi-pronged approach to negate the chief minister's claims that the party was behind the violent incidents.
National BJP chief J.P. Nadda called up Majumdar on Monday evening to enquire about the law and order in the state.
"I spoke to Naddaji and informed him how local residents had been accusing police of bias. They said victims of violence were arrested while the perpetrators were roaming around," Majumdar told this newspaper.
Majumdar was on his way to meet the victims of clashes at Rishra when the police stopped him in Konnagar's Bishalakshmitola on Monday. Bishalakshmitola is a couple of kilometres away from Rishra.
"The law and order in the state is reaching dangerous levels. Everywhere the police are receiving calls from someone who is asking them not to take action against the perpetrators," Majumdar said.
He met MLA Biman Ghosh and others, who had suffered injuries in the clash, at a nursing home in Hooghly. Majumdar then moved towards Rishra, along with Purulia MP and state BJP vice-president Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato. The police prevented Majumdar's convoy as Section 144 had been implemented in and around Rishra.
BJP workers tried to overpower the law enforcers and remove barricades as Majumdar, Mahato and others engaged in an altercation with the police. Later, the Balurghat MP staged a sit-in demonstration at the site.
He left around 5.30pm with a promise to return on Tuesday morning. "If the police don't stop arresting the victims, I will sit on a dharna at the Battala crossing in Serampore from Wednesday morning," he said.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari also called on Ghosh and the other victims of the clashes at the hospital. He later addressed a farmer's rally at Chandrakona in West Midnapore, where he wore a T-shirt with "No vote to Mamata" printed on it.
The Trinamul Congress was quick to hit out at Adhikari. "They can't even come up with a slogan of their own and yet, they hope to win polls," said Trinamul leader Kunal Ghosh as he made an oblique reference to the "No vote to BJP" campaign during the 2021 Assembly polls.
An ATM that was vandalised during the violence at Rishra in Hooghly district on Sunday Picture by Pradip Sanyal
Court seeks report
Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the state government to file a report, along with video footage, on "alleged untoward" incidents that had taken place in Howrah, Hooghly and North Dinajpur districts during Ram Navami celebrations.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha also asked the government to take all possible steps to maintain normality in the areas and provide safety and security to common citizens, especially school-goers and traders. The video footage and the report have to be submitted by April 6 when the matter will be heard again.
The order followed a petition by Suvendu Adhikari who demanded a probe by the NIA into the clashes.
The petitioner also demanded that central forces be deployed in Howrah, Hooghly and North Dinajpur districts. However, advocate general S.N. Mukherjee claimed that normality had already been restored in the affected areas and 36 people were arrested in Howrah.
Raiganj BJP MP Debasree Chaudhuri met President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Monday and informed her "about the ongoing injustices to the women and children of West Bengal as well as the SCs, STs and OBCs" and the situation in Bengal.
