On Saturday, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh was halted by the police while travelling towards South 24 Parganas. The MP was travelling to visit areas in the district that had been affected by Cyclone Amphan.
The police stopped Ghosh from going past barricades, stating that with the COVID-19 lockdown in place, permission was required to travel from one district to another.
The Free Press Journal's Prema Rajaram reports that there were also protests near the barricade. Reportedly, there were protests against the BJP and the people involved raised slogans against the saffron party.
Taking to Twitter, Ghosh too had commented on the presence of barricades.
"While moving towards Amphan Cyclone affected areas of Baruipur-Canning-Basanti, police barricade at Dhalai bridge (Kolkata). Strange!" he tweeted, sharing a photo of himself in the car. Through the car's windscreen a group of officials can be seen gathered.
Reacting to the same, National General Secretary of BJP, Kailash Vijayvargiya accused the West Bengal government of being "focused on scoring political brownie points even in the times of disaster".
"Mamata Banerjee will politicize everything, not let BJP leaders reach people and will herself do nothing to ease the pain. Her government has failed the state," he alleged.
On Saturday, the death toll from Cyclone Amphan was raised to 86. Several parts of the state remain without electricity, and this has prompted protests in different areas.
Earlier on Friday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had said that West Bengal had suffered losses to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore in the fiercest cyclone to hit the state in over 100 years.
