Violent clashes marred the BJP-sponsored 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on Wednesday, disrupting road and train services, and sparking scuffles between the police-ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers and bandh supporters at several pockets of the State.
The BJP claimed the bandh was successful while the TMC said it has failed to evoke overwhelming response. Several BJP leaders, including former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya and MLA Agnimitra Paul, were detained for blocking roads and urging people to enforce the bandh since morning.
The most significant of these clashes was reported from Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district where, the BJP alleged, TMC goons fired multiple rounds on its local leader Priyangu Pandey's car and shared a purported video of the crime on social media platforms. He claimed that the Trinamool workers opened fire at him and hurled bombs when he was travelling in a car in Bhatpara. Four people have been arrested, the Kolkata Police said.
The shutdown affected daily life in the State with many people choosing to remain indoors apprehending trouble on the roads. In Kolkata, the usual weekday flurry was missing with a lesser number of buses, auto-rickshaws and taxis plying. Private vehicles were also significantly fewer, even as markets and shops remained open as usual. Schools and colleges were open, though the number of students was less. In many private offices, attendance was low with employees asked to work from home. However, attendance was as usual in Government offices.
An Eastern Railway official said bandh supporters blocked tracks at 49 places under its jurisdiction in the State in both Sealdah and Howrah divisions. While the blockades were lifted at most places, it continued for longer durations in nine stations, mostly in the Sealdah South section, he said.
BJP workers demonstrated at various stations in North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia and Murshidabad districts in support of the bandh. Suburban railway services were also disrupted when bandh supporters dropped banana leaves on overhead electrical wires at various places, railway officials confirmed.
The violence was followed by a showdown between local BJP leader Arjun Singh and his TMC counterpart Somnath Shyam, with both leaders and their supporters standing face to face in altercation further triggering tensions and the police finding it tough to disperse the warring groups. "Miscreants owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress fired the shots. If police are not around we will show TMC what people's power looks like," Singh said. Shyam countered by saying that the BJP leader was trying to "incite violence in a peaceful area".
The 'Bangla Bandh', which began at 6 am, was called by the BJP in protest against Tuesday's police action on participants of 'Nabanna Abhijan' or march to the secretariat, organised by the newly formed students' group Chatra Samaj over the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital.
Ganguly and Paul were detained from south Kolkata's Gariahat area when they were urging traders to down their shutters and requesting people to support the bandh. Chatterjee along with party leaders Rahul Sinha and Tamaghna Ghosh were detained from Shyambazar, while Bhattacharya was picked up in Salt Lake. Kolkata's councillor Sajal Ghosh was arrested from his residence after BJP workers scuffled with TMC supporters while trying to enforce the bandh in the nearby Koley Market. His wife Tania Ghosh alleged that police held him without a warrant. Later, Deputy Commissioner (Central) Indira Mukherjee said Ghosh was arrested for making provocative comments.
State BJP president and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar led a procession at Baguihati in the northern fringes of the city and had an altercation with the police who tried to stop him. Former MP Debasree Choudhury and hundreds of party workers accompanied him. Majumdar later went to central Kolkata and blocked the CR Avenue outside the state BJP headquarters along with his supporters. He had heated arguments with senior police officers who swung into action to clear the arterial road. In north Bengal's Alipurduar, BJP MP Manoj Tigga was arrested for enforcing the bandh. In Cooch Behar, party MLAs Malati Rava Roy and Nikhil Ranjan Dey were among those arrested, police said.
Reports of clashes between BJP and TMC workers were received from the government bus stand area in Balurghat, from Hooghly's Konnagar and Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman. Picketing by BJP supporters on the roads led to the disruption of public transport services in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Siliguri and Malda in northern West Bengal, and in Purulia, Bankura and some other places in the southern part of the state. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led a protest march in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, his home district. Most jute mills, save a few in North and South 24 Parganas districts, remained operational during the day, Indian Jute Mills Association chairman Raghvendra Gupta said. Port operations were also normal. Both the dock systems Kolkata Docks and Haldia were functional, Syama Prasad Mookherjee Port spokesperson Sanjay Mukherjee said.
