Political tensions flared in south Kolkata on Sunday evening as clashes broke out between supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Sakherbazar and Behala Paschim areas, triggering vandalism, arson and chaos on public roads.
According to reports, the confrontation in Sakherbazar, located on the southwestern fringes of the city, began over the alleged high-volume use of microphones by a local club.
The BJP alleged that TMC workers attempted to disrupt its meeting by playing loud music and placing party flags at the BJP’s venue. The party claimed that BJP supporters subsequently vandalised an event organised by Trinamool leader Sudip Polley, following which TMC supporters allegedly retaliated by vandalising and setting fire to the BJP’s meeting stage.
The BJP further stated that former Tripura Chief Minister and BJP election co-incharge Biplab Kumar Deb had addressed a rally at the site earlier in the day as part of the party’s ‘Parivartan Sankalp Yatra’ ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. During the clashes later in the evening, a makeshift stage from which Deb had addressed the gathering was allegedly set on fire.
Separately, moments after Deb addressed voters at the Parivartan Sankalp Sabha in Behala Paschim, Trinamool workers allegedly stormed the venue, vandalised the site and, after his departure, set the sabha stage on fire in the middle of a busy market area. An official said that one fire tender was deployed to bring the blaze under control.
TMC MLA from Behala Purba, Ratna Chatterjee, claimed that some BJP supporters had accosted members of a local club during a badminton tournament. “The Trinamool Congress will make its stance harder, the more they resort to such tactics,” she told reporters after visiting the club.
Local BJP leaders, however, alleged that miscreants set fire to the makeshift stage at Sakherbazar from where Biplab Kumar Deb had addressed the rally earlier in the day.
-
-
-
-
