Protests erupted outside the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in the Hastings area of Kolkata when newly inducted party leaders Suvendu Adhikari and MP Sunil Kumar Mondal arrived at the office on Saturday. The new inductees, earlier with the Trinamool Congress, had come for a welcome ceremony.
After being inducted into the BJP last week, this was the first visit of the former Trinamool Congress leaders to the BJP party office. Trinamool supporters blocked the car of Sunil Mondal and started shouting slogans against him. The protesters surrounded his vehicle and also sat on the road to prevent the vehicle from moving forward. This led to a scuffle between the Trinamool and BJP supporters. The police had to intervene to ensure that the MP from Bardhaman Purba got into the party office safely.
Mr. Mondal had contested and won the 2019 Lok Sabha election on the Trinamool Congress ticket. He had joined the BJP with a host of other legislators on December 19 this year.
Referring to the protests against him, Mr. Adhikari said that he was ashamed that he had been a part of the Trinamool Congress for 21 years.
“Our primary responsibility is to win the State and hand it over to Modiji,” Mr. Adhikari said, emphasising his commitment to the BJP. Slogans were also raised against Mr. Adhikari but the protesters could not reach his vehicle. Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders like Kaliash Vijayvargiya accusing the ruling party in the State of erecting a stage near the BJP party office in Hastings.
State BJP vice-president Pratap Banerjee lodged a complaint in a local police station stating that the “BJP was shocked to find that a stage has been erected in front of Hastings party office”. “ We call upon you to immediately take steps to have this stage removed, ensure that the Trinamool Congress does not hold any gatherings and also arrange appropriate deployment of force to maintain law and order,” said the letter by the BJP leader addressed to the officer-in-charge of Hastings Police Station. A similar scuffle had erupted outside the BJP’s Hastings party office during the visit of national BJP president J.P. Nadda earlier this month.
The Trinamool Congress leadership said that the party had nothing to do with the protests. While party MP Saugata Roy said that it was a “spontaneous protest” by the people irked by those changing political sides, Minister Firhad Hakim said that the party had no role in the protests.
