Bengal’s top BJP leaders – including the party’s state chief Dilip Ghosh and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari – were among dozens of BJP workers arrested in Kolkata today for violating Covid rules during a protest in the heart of the city.
150 leaders and party workers were arrested today, the BJP has alleged.
The BJP leaders, including former Minister of State Debasree Chowdhury, staged a sit-in at the Gandhi statue to mark the “Poschimbongo Bachao Diwas (Save West Bengal Day)” to counter the Trinamool Congress’s “Khela Hobe Diwas”.
The BJP had organised a demonstration in Kolkata, called “Save West Bengal Day”, to counter the Trinamool Congress’ ‘‘Khela Hobe Divas”, PTI reported.
West Bengal’s ruling party marked the ‘‘Khela Hobe Divas” to commemorate 16 people who were killed in a stampede at a stadium Kolkata in 1980. As a tribute to them, the West Bengal government organised football matches across the state on Monday.
Ghosh and Adhikari sat in protest near a Mahatma Gandhi statue at Mayo Road in Kolkata after the police detained their colleagues Mina Devi Purohit and Kalyan Choubey for gathering in another area, PTI reported.
Ghosh and Adhikari were also detained after their sit-in. “TMC [Trinamool Congress] is deliberately creating trouble in Tripura and talking about attack on democracy in that state,” Ghosh was quoted as saying by PTI. “What is it doing here? Not allowing us to carry on our peaceful protests.”
An unidentified police officer told PTI that a total of 50 BJP leaders and activists were detained for violating the Disaster Management Act.
“The partisan police has murdered democracy by arresting BJP leaders during the Save West Bengal Day,” the party said in a statement.
The BJP leaders’ protest was in violation of Covid rules which prohibit political gatherings and meetings, police sources told NDTV.
The TMC and BJP have been locked in a battle over Khela Hobe Divas with the latter saying the TMC was insensitive to not empathise with those including Hindu monks of various religious organisations who mourn the death of several people in 1946. The TMC said this was a government programme and that the BJP was only indulging in religious politics.
