Trinamul Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee was denied entry to one of the temples on a vast estate at the spiritual abode of Matuas here on Sunday by a faction led by BJP leader and junior Union minister Shantanu Thakur in the community's association.

Supporters of Shantanu's faction in the All India Matua Mahasangha prevented the Diamond Harbour MP's visit to the Harichand-Guruchand temple after a clash with a rival group allegiant to Trinamul.

A gate collapses during the clash on the premises of the Harichand-Guruchand temple on Sunday

Shantanu and his brother Subrata, who is the BJP’s Gaighata MLA, allegedly pushed the members of the rival faction out of the Harichand-Guruchand temple. CISF personnel guarding the BJP leaders were accused of assaulting women and locking the entrance to the temple from the inside, taking full control of the premises.

Repeated appeals by senior police officers failed to persuade the BJP-friendly faction’s supporters to drop the protest.

Abhishek, the nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, arrived 40 minutes behind schedule. He could visit other places of worship — the Harichand temple and the residence of Matua matriarch “Baroma” Binapani Debi — on the premises. He accused minister Thakur of triggering tension and “polluting” a holy place with dirty politics and the misuse of central forces.

The Trinamul-leaning faction of the Mahasangha lodged a complaint at the Gaighata police station for the alleged attack on the women and assault by the central forces. The complaint lodged by the junior Union minister’s aunt and a Mahasangha leader, Trinamul’s Mamatabala Thakur, was against the BJP’s Thakur brothers, CISF personnel and at least 10 BJP activists.

The police detained a dozen BJP supporters when they went for primary treatment at the Chandpara block primary health centre. It led to a scuffle with the police in the presence of minister Thakur.

At least eight Matua devotees of the Trinamul-leaning faction were injured and six of them had to be hospitalised.

As part of his ongoing mass outreach programme, Abhishek was scheduled to visit the temple to offer prayers and interact with Matua devotees. But the BJP-led faction in the Matua Association began an aggressive demonstration protesting his visit and demanding an apology from the ruling party for some alleged abusive remarks by its top leadership.

With increasing numbers of Trinamul supporters gathering at the temple premises, they later jostled while trying to pave the way for Abhishek, not long before his arrival.

Abhishek’s visit was scheduled for Saturday but postponed on account of an unfavourable weather forecast. The BJP leadership was against his visit. With the demand for the apology, the BJP-leaning faction of the Mahasangha began demonstrations in the morning.

“I was scheduled to offer prayers here. But from the morning, miscreants of the BJP took control of the temple to keep me out. They have merely 250 people, while we have over 5,000 people with us here. If we wished to do so, I could have forced my way in. But this is not the place for display of power, as it is a holy place. But this temple is not anybody’s paternal property,” said Abhishek.

“The lessons and sacrifices of Harichand and Guruchand Thakur are desecrated today by Shantanu Thakur, and the miscreants under him. Local people will give a befitting reply for this humiliation. If anybody dreams to establish himself as a guru, outside of the ideals of Harichand and Guruchand, it would be a big mistake,” he added. “I will come here every three months, and I challenge Shantanu Thakur to deny me entry.”

Minister Thakur said: “We have no objection to the visit of the MP (Abhishek) to the temple. But I was compelled to react when I heard Trinamul supporters and miscreants entered the temple and forced out priests.”

“This angered the devotees, who barricaded the premises,” he added.

Trinamul state general-secretary Kunal Ghosh flayed the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari for trying to shift the blame of the incident. Calling it “outrageous”, Ghosh tweeted: “By defending his MP, Mr. Adhikari has revealed that the Matuas are no more than a pawn in BJP’s political gambit!”