Jadavpur University Violence: BJP Says ABVP Is Not Its Student Wing, Distances Party From Clash

Kolkata: Amid clash between ABVP and SFI over general body meeting, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya distances BJP from ABVP.

Talking to the media, Bhattacharya said that ABVP is not the student’s wing of BJP.

“ABVP is an independent body and they will respond to whatever they are doing. ABVP is not the student’s wing of BJP,” said Bhattacharya.

Violence erupted inside the Jadavpur University (JU) campus in the wee hours of Thursday when ABVP supporters clashed against SFI supporters over a general body meeting.

With sticks and bricks armed ABVP supporters tore posters of the Left supported SFI and had set them on fire. The chaos even reached till Aurobindo Bhawan, the administrative headquarters of the university.

ABVP supporters claimed that there are no official union representatives in the university but the meeting was called as the Left backed students wanted to constitute the union unilaterally.

On Thursday the situation became tense after the ABVP supporters broke three tier barricades of the police and had again entered the varsity campus and also ransacked the flags of posters of SFI and the logo of the campus outside the main gate of the varsity also got damaged.

ABVP’s JU Unit President Nikhil Das, was injured and later taken to KPC Hospital, Jadavpur, for treatment.

ABVP supporter Aritra Sarkar on Wednesday night had lodged a complaint against 11 people.

BJP MLA from Jadavpur Sarbari Mukherjee blamed SFI supporters and student leader Srijan Bhattacharya for the ruckus and asked Srijan to surrender before Jadavpur police station. The BJP MLA also warned of bigger protests if the SFI leaders didn't surrender before the police.

At the time of reporting the police said the present situation in and around the university is peaceful.

Vice-Chancellor Chiranjeev Bhattacharya called the incident of violence ‘unfortunate’.