'Nabanna Cholo' Round-Up: BJP Re-Energises Bengal Cadre, TMC Flexes Its Muscles, Common Man Suffers

With more than 2,000 meetings and 5,000 posters over the past one month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had big plans for its march to the state secretariat, the ‘Nabanna Cholo’ campaign, on Tuesday.

However, from Monday itself, it was clear that the police will not allow the BJP workers to go anywhere near the spot.

The Kolkata Police Commissioner and Howrah Police Commissioner had written to the BJP leaders that their rally was illegal. They had begun stopping BJP workers, with heavy police deployment and barricades in front of the Howrah Bridge on the Hooghly River.

Various Nabanna workers had to walk towards their office as the secretariat turned into a fortress with even drones being deployed for monitoring.

ADHIKARY STOPPED

As the day began, it was a clear call for war – the BJP versus the Trinamool Congress-led administration.

Three rallies were to be headed by BJP’s Suvendu Adhikary. However, around 12.30 pm, Suvendu Adhikary, Locket Chatterjee and Rahul Sinha were detained. Women police officers tried to take in Adhikary, but he reacted: “Don’t touch me. I am a member of security commission, why will you not allow me? Is CM Mamata Banerjee afraid? You can’t stop me. I will move the High Court."

He was taken into police custody and was taken to Lalbazar. Sitting in Lalbazar, Adhikary said: “I would request all workers not to fall into the trap."

As Adhikary was stopped, the focus shifted to Dilip Ghosh and Sukanto Majumdar, who were supposed to lead other rallies.

MAJUMDAR, GHOSH STOPPED

At Howrah Maidan, Sukanto Majumdar sat on dharna, but he was stopped. The police also detained Dilip Ghosh, who had started from the BJP headquarters.

People with various posters of TMC ministers followed him, amid stone-pelting and tear gas shelling.

A police car was set on fire on MG Road, even as Swapan Dasgupta got injured, and Meena Devi Purohit, former deputy mayor of Kolkata, got severely injured. She had to be hospitalised. An ACP was injured in front of Lalbazar, another team of the BJP went, but they too were detained.

POLITICAL REACTIONS

Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP?s National Information & Technology Dept and co-in-charge, West Bengal, tweeted: “Mamata Banerjee sent TMC cadres to pelt stones at the police so that later BJP could be blamed for it…"

Meanwhile, the TMC tweeted: “A bunch of rioters and hooligans who neither understand peaceful protest, nor allow peaceful coexistence. We condemn this brazen attempt to destroy public peace and damage to Government property. Mamata Banerjee who is in Medinipur for administrative meeting stated that BJP did not have people in rally."

Kunal Ghosh, General Secretary, TMC, said, “It’s a flop show of the BJP, they had big conspiracy, they wanted to create disturbance, but police did a great job."

Sukanto Majumdar, on the other hand, said: “I salute the courage and high spirit of our @BJYM Karyakartas, who have put a great protest along with people of West Bengal. Our fight against TMC will continue till we oust TMC govt."

The TMC gave the administration full marks, as they stopped the BJP everywhere. The BJP thanked its workers, as they succeeded in re-energising the cadre.

COMMON MAN SUFFERS

Amid all this, where was common man?

Most of the roads in an around main Kolkata were diverted and people could not reach their destinations. Mihir Roy, 64, who works in Nabanna, told News18: “See, I have to walk and reach my office, I don’t have a choice. I am not a politician. I have no interest in all this, but I am facing a problem."

Meanwhile, most living in an around Kolkata kept answering frantic calls from concerned relatives.

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