A team of central BJP leaders has reached Kolkata to take stock of the situation after violence had erupted during the party’s Nabanna Abhijan (March to Nabanna) campaign this week.
Sources say the team will go to the hospital to meet injured party workers, and then will visit the residence of leader Meena Devi Purohit who was hurt during the clashes. They will then meet the press.
Those in the team include Rajya Sabha members Brij Lal, KC Ramamurthy, and Samir Oraon, as well as Dr Satya Pal Singh, Aparajita Sarangi, and Col Rajyavardhan Rathore from the Lok Sabha, and former Punjab MP Sunil Jakhar.
They will be guided by four local leaders, say sources, including state BJP chief Dr Sukanta Majumdar and party national spokesperson Bharati Ghosh, a former Naxal-fighting IPS officer.
Several areas in Kolkata and Howrah district had turned into battlefields as BJP supporters clashed with the police while trying to get past barricades during their march to the West Bengal secretariat on Tuesday.
MP and former top cop Brij Lal spoke exclusively to News18, saying that the team will try to learn the details of what actually happened and will submit a report to party chief JP Nadda. He also stressed that the central leaders stand with the party workers and they will definitely oust the ruling Trinamool Congress.
“See we will talk to our workers. We will first go to the hospital where several injured workers are there. They have fought against corruption but they were brutally tortured by police. We will then go to the house of our former deputy mayor Meena Devi Purohit. She was beaten up by the police. We will also visit our Hastings office. After Nabanna Abhijan, the police is arresting all our workers. We will talk to our workers there. We will submit our report to our president the next day,” he said.
He said the party was proud of its cadres for raising their voice against corruption. “We are raising our voice against corrupt ex-minister Partha Chatterjee, Anubrata Mondal…they are behind bars for corruption. When we are raising our voices, they are attacking us? They are beating an elderly lady?” said the MP.
Brij Lal also said that the BJP’s message to its workers in West Bengal is to not be afraid. “We will boost their morale. We will give the TMC a strong fight in the coming elections,” he said.
Trinamool, though, has said the BJP MPs have come for political tourism.
Party spokesperson and general secretary Kunal Ghosh told News18, “They can come and roam about. My question is, in UP women are raped. Why are they not sending teams there? What will they do? Videos show everything…how police have been beaten up. I think they are sending a team to investigate the ‘touch me not’ game (in a dig at BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari).”
Responding to this, Brij Lal said, “They can only say this. I also came when Bogtui happened (when eight people were burnt alive). They tried to stop us, they attacked. Let them say whatever. In the panchayat polls (next year), our workers will give their best. People will not support TMC.”
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