In what is being viewed as a warming up session ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections, hundreds of BJP workers on Thursday fought pitched battles with the police at various places including Asansol, Salt lake, Hooghly and South 24 Parganas even as they agitated against the reign of terror perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress in Bengal.
The agitating party men broke barricades at Asansol where the police resorted to minor lathi-charge injuring some workers. The police failed to resist the slogan shouting workers who broke a number of barricades. The police however denied reports of any lathi-charge.
The saffron party has a good organisational base at Asansol from where party MP and Union Minister Babul Supriyo was elected in the last year’s general elections.
At Salt lake in the northern fringes of Kolkata hundreds of saffron workers carrying placards and flags jostled with the police.
The scene at Serampore in Hooghly district was no different where the BJP men demonstrated for hours at the Serampore court.
The situation turned more hostile in South 24 Parganas where the Inspector in-charge reportedly severely beat up a woman worker. She was subsequently hospitalised in a serious condition, party sources said.
“Bengal under the Trinamool has changed into a police State where there is no place for the opposition parties” Samik Bhattacharya the lone BJP MlA in the State Assembly said.
Meanwhile the left parties on Thursday staged a walkout from the State Assembly after their demand for a discussion on political intolerance and chit fund scam was turned down by Speaker Biman Banerjee.