Kolkata, Aug 8 (PTI) Members of a BJP delegation faced violent protests on Friday when they visited the residences of a local woman panchayat member and three other party supporters, whose houses were allegedly vandalised by TMC supporters at Dinhata in West Bengal’s Coochbehar district the day before, eyewitnesses said.
Jayanti Barman, a BJP panchayat member, alleged her pregnant daughter Purabi and three other party supporters were beaten up by “TMC activists who vandalised their houses.” As a four-member BJP team, led by MLAs Malati Rava Roy and Sushil Barman, went to the residences of Jayanti and three other injured supporters, they were allegedly stopped by a mob of local villagers, including a large number of women, eyewitnesses added.
Amidst jostling and war of words between the two sides, the four were escorted by policemen who took them away from the chasing mob.
An official said police personnel were deployed in the area to prevent any further flareups.
Roy and Barman, however, alleged local TMC supporters and leaders carried out an unprovoked attack, instigated by Dinhata MLA and North Bengal Affairs department minister Udayan Guha, who wanted to create a fear psychosis in the area before the next year Assembly polls.
“The TMC attackers actually belong to Rohingya/Bangladeshi communities. The Mamata Banerjee government has sheltered these infiltrators,” Roy claimed.
Guha said TMC was not in any way involved in the incident, as it was the outcome of local villagers’ discontentment over BJP’s “anti-Bengali and anti-Bengal rhetoric and the silence of state BJP leaders about harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants outside the state.” Earlier this week, leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s convoy was attacked in Coochbehar during a protest allegedly by TMC.
The TMC, however, described it as “stage-managed drama.” Denying his party’s involvement in any of the cases, Guha said, “The BJP is desperate as they are finding their ground slipping underneath following atrocities reported against Bengalis in double-engine ruled states leading to their exposure.” PTI SUS MNB
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