Kolkata: The ‘high voltage’ constituency Nandigram on Thursday turned into a battlefield as the supporters of the ruling TMC and the BJP clashed while defected leader Suvendu Adhikari started his poll campaign.
According to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who was also campaigning for Suvendu stated that no sooner did the youth wing cadres of West Bengal BJP started appealing to people to vote for BJP, than the TMC cadres started hitting the saffron camp supporters.
“Several BJP cadres were injured during the Padayatra of Suvendhu Adhikari, out of which three are serious and his head was bleeding profusely after he was beaten up by something heavy. The TMC has completely resorted to violence to beat the popularity of the BJP,” said Pradhan seeking immediate deployment of paramilitary forces in Nandigram from the Election Commission.
Notably, Nadigram constituency is going for the poll during the second phase on April1. All eyes are on this ‘heavyweight’ constituency as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting from the Nandigram constituency against her once close aide Suvendu Adhikari.
Meeting the injured party workers, Suvendu claimed that he will inform the regional election officer to take strict action against the violence and also that the ruling Trinamool Congress had intentionally shown him black flag and threw shoes at him.
The ‘turncoat’ leader also claimed that there were two incident of violence on Thursday at Nandigram. One was a crude bomb attack in the morning in which a youth wing worker of the saffron camp sustained serious injury and another attack on his rally.
Meanwhile, a TMC delegation comprising Derek O’Brien and Shashi Panja met West Bengal CEO over Nandigram issue and submitted a deputation claiming that in the last 24 hours the BJP cadres had beaten up TMC workers and have also damaged TMC cars.
“The BJP goons are instigating violence fearing their loss from Nandigram constituency. They are beating our workers and injuring them and then claimed that the TMC is unleashing violence. We want the Election Commission to take serious action against this incident,” claimed Panja.
It can be recalled that on March 10 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got injured during her campaign and claimed that it was ‘preplanned’ action by the saffron camp.
