BJP leader assaults party man
Kolkata: The rift in BJP has once again come to the fore after a former BJP Yuva Morcha member beat up the president of the party's West Midnapore unit on Friday morning.
The injured leader was taken to the hospital for treatment. The police detained Uttam Das, former Yuva Morcha president of the district in connection with the incident.
Samit Das, district president of West Midnapore unit of BJP had convened a meeting of party workers of Dantan Block I under Kesiari Assembly constituency at Dantan Rabindra Bhavan. During recess, Uttam Das allegedly attacked the district president and started beating him up. Later, he was taken to hospital for treatment.
The resentment of BJP's rank and file against the leaders is brewing up because of their indifferent attitude at the Yuva Morcha rally on Thursday.
Sarmistha Das Ghatak, a member of Kaugachi Block I gram panchayat in Jagatgal in North 24-Parganas who took part in the march to Nabanna movement on Thursday was rescued by police and sent to Muralidhar Sen Lane office in a car. Ghatak was caught up in the melee when the police chased away BJP supporters at Hastings.
The police sprayed coloured water to disperse the crowd. She lost her cell phone and did not know what to do. A women police officer who saw her took her away, arranged a vehicle for her and dropped her to the state headquarters of BJP.
Political experts said the march to Nabanna has exposed the organisational weakness of the party. The party has not gained anything and the people saw the violence unleashed by party rank and file in the name of a democratic movement.
They said none of the front ranking leaders including Dilip Ghosh, state president, Arjun Singh and Locket Chatterjee, both MPs, Kailash Vijayvargiya, national secretary were not seen anywhere near the police barricades. The rallies were controlled virtually by the goons who attacked police unprovoked. They tried to break the security barriers and pelted stones at the police. The police requested them to move away and later restored to lathi charge and sprayed coloured water. The crowd thinned out after 3.30pm.
"Bengal has seen political rallies for decades and every rally was led by the leaders be it Trinamool Congress, Left or Congress. It was for the first time when a movement was seen without leaders," political experts explained.
