Trinamul continued its protests over issues of tea workers in front of homes of BJP lawmakers in Alipurduar district for the third day on Sunday, this time near the house of the BJP MLA of Alipurduar town, prodding the BJP to follow suit.
The BJP leadership in Alipurduar on Sunday drew up a similar protest plan in front of homes of Trinamul’s representatives of the zilla parishad and panchayat samitis. Trinamul doesn’t have any MP or MLA in the district.
On Sunday, Trinamul workers gathered at ward I of Alipurduar town for their protest in front of the residence of BJP MLA Suman Kanjilal.
As part of the protests near Kanjilal’s house, local Trinamul leaders delivered fiery speeches and accused the BJP MLA of not taking any initiative to get funds for housing and 100 days’ work schemes from the Centre.
“Thousands of people are being deprived by the Centre as it has stopped providing funds to the state under different central schemes. The BJP MLAs and MPs, whom people have elected from here, are sitting idle because of political interest. This is unacceptable,” said Dipta Chatterjee, the Alipurduar town block Trinamul president.
As Trinamul supporters continued to mount pressure on the BJP lawmakers over a slew of issues ranging from pending provident fund of tea workers to the halt in the allocation of central funds for social welfare schemes over the past few days, the leaders of the saffron camp congregated at the district party office here on Sunday.
They had discussions on a number of issues, including the probable impact of ongoing protests by Trinamul ahead of the panchayat polls.
All five BJP MLAs of the district were present at the meeting.
Later, the BJP leaders announced that they too had drawn up a protest plan to counter the ruling party of Bengal.
“It has been decided that in the first week of February, we will launch a sit-in in front of the house of the sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad (in Kumargram). We will highlight the corruption in the housing scheme, MGNREGS and in the construction of rural roads,” said Manoj Tigga, the BJP MLA of Madarihat.
In due course, the BJPwill hold similar protests infront of the homes of sabhapatis of panchayat samitis and pradhans of panchayats, Tigga, the BJP’s chief whip in the Bengal Assembly, said.
In Bengal, Alipurduar is the third district after Darjeeling and Kalimpong where Mamata Banerjee’s party doesn’t have any MLA or MP.
Trinamul supporters and some tea workers started the protests on Friday. Before Sunday, protests were held near the homes of BJP MLAs in Kalchini, Kumargram, Falakata and Madarihat of the district.
They also demonstrated in front of the home of Alipurduar BJP MP John Barla, also Union minister of state for minority affairs, at Lakkhipara tea estate in Banarhat of neighbouring Jalpaiguri.
