BJP’s fact-finding team faces protests by party workers
Kolkata: A fact-finding team of the BJP which is visiting Bengal to probe the allegations of post-poll violence faced protests from its own party workers in Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha Constituency on Tuesday.
The team, which reached the city on Sunday, includes convener Biplab Deb, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajya Sabha MPs Brij Lal and Kavita Patidar.
On Tuesday, former chief minister of Tripura, Biplab Deb had to encounter protests by dissenting party workers in South 24-Parganas Amtala where a group of BJP supporters blocked his car and insisted he get down and meet them.
The bone of contention of the protestors was the alleged inaction by the party’s district president Abhijit Sardar in the face of attacks by the ruling party (TMC) workers following the conclusion of the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal.
The protestors told Deb that Sardar was colluding with the TMC as ever since the poll results were out on June 4 BJP workers were facing the ire of TMC workers in Diamond Harbour but the party’s district leadership chose to remain silent. On Tuesday, the fact-finding team visited Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas. Both Amtala and Bishnupur come under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency where TMC candidate Abhishek Banerjee won for the third consecutive time with a vote margin of over 7 lakhs.
On Monday, it visited Cooch Behar where its party workers have allegedly been attacked following the defeat of BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik. Deb is learnt to have told the media there: “After BJP came to power in Tripura, there have been no political murders. The BJP’s Central team has come to the state regarding post-election terror in Bengal.” Another team member, MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, claimed: “Violence occurs only in Bengal after elections.”
Recently, the Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari had marched till Raj Bhavan with about 200 alleged victims of post-poll violence. He had moved the court after the police had barred him from entering the Governor’s House.
Meanwhile, Trinamool leader Shantanu Sen said the protests by BJP workers against their own leaders show a disconnect within the party. He suggested that complaints of post-poll violence against the TMC by the BJP are nothing but a sham.
