Kolkata: The electoral battle in Bengal is getting vitiated by the day, in the run up to the last phase on May 19. BJP student wing members clashed with their Trinamool counterparts just as Amit Shah’s roadshow was meandering past the Calcutta University campus on College Street in Kolkata.
While Shah escaped unhurt, he was forced to cut short the roadshow and had to be escorted to safety. BJP supporters took matters into their hands when some students of north Kolkata’s Vidyasagar College — who were holding ‘‘Go Back Amit Shah” posters — prevented them from proceeding further.
ABVP activists started pelting stones, barged into the college and ran amok. Motorcycles park-ed on the campus were set on fire and a bust of a 19th century educationist on the premises was vandalised.
Videos from the spot showed chaotic scenes — people dressed in saffron throwing stones as others ran helter-skelter. Contingents of Kolkata Police deployed for the roadshow were seen chasing away the warring groups in a belated crack down.
There was an attempt by TMC hooligans to attack me. Mamata Banerjee tried to provoke violence. But I am safe,” Shah said, adding that police remained a mute spectator during the clashes.
The Mamata Banerjee government had allegedly cancelled permission for Shah’s rally in Jadhavpur constituency yesterday. No permission was granted either for the landing of his chopper. Supporters of the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress clashed at the venue of the cancelled event.
BJP sources, however, were adamant that stones were pelted at Shah’s convoy from a college hostel, to which the BJP retaliated. After the clashes erupted, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned of a befitting response. “I can reach you in Delhi also.
I will not spare anyone who broke Vidyasagar’s statue and damaged college property,” she added. TMC spokesperson Derek O’ Brien claimed that the BJP had brought “desperate goons” to indulge in vandalism. “A violent mob of BJP ‘outsiders’ in presence of Pukeworthy Shah. How little you know about Bengal, its rich history, its culture. Bengal will never forgive for what you did today,” he wrote in a tweet.
After Banerjee criticised the BJP and its president, Shah told India Today, “My roadshow was peaceful but Trinamool Congress workers attacked our convoy. Mamata didi is behind all of this. We [BJP] are not the reason behind the violence, it is Mamata didi. We will win more than 23 seats in Bengal.” “Our roadshow was attacked. I was not allowed to go to Vivekananda ji’s house.
I wanted to go there and offer floral tributes but was not allowed to go there,” Amit Shah told India Today. The roadshow had permission for going towards Vivekananda house but the permission was only given to Shah and a few others. Since Shah insisted on everyone proceeding towards Vivekananda house, the police stopped the convoy.
