Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appeared before a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday, representing victims of alleged post-poll violence as their counsel, a rare move for a politician who also holds a bar council membership. She argued before Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, urging the court to direct police to register FIRs in all poll-related violence cases and protect minorities and marginalised communities. She told the bench that at least ten people had been killed since election results were declared on 4 May.
However, the day took a dramatic turn as Banerjee was leaving the court premises. A section of the gathered crowd began raising slogans calling her a thief. Speaking to reporters moments after the incident, she claimed she had been assaulted, though no injury was reported.
Trinamool Congress swiftly condemned the episode. Senior party leader and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, who accompanied the former chief minister and assisted in the hearing, alleged that lawyers affiliated with the BJP were behind the provocation. He said the legal team faced considerable difficulty escorting her out safely, and warned that if a three-time chief minister could be treated this way inside a court compound, ordinary party workers across Bengal faced far worse.
Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty echoed that view, describing the incident as a sign of deteriorating democratic norms under what he called the new BJP dispensation in the state.
The PIL before the court was filed by lawyer Shirshanya Bandyopadhyay on behalf of Trinamool on 12 May, alleging that party workers were driven from their homes and attacked following the election results. Banerjee, who personally lost her Bhabanipur seat to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari and has declined to resign as CM pending a legal challenge to the results, wore the traditional black lawyer's jacket over her signature white saree for the hearing.
