There was absolute bedlam in front of the Bengal BJP headquarters for the second consecutive day on Wednesday even as the Tuesday’s agitation against State leadership degenerated into a virtual brawl leaving a few persons injured. All hell broke loose after a band of partymen from South 24 Parganas gathered at the State party office raising slogans against the district and State leadership bringing charges of corruption against them.
State BJP president Rahul Sinha, who had on Tuesday warned strong action, branded the disturbance as a one “sponsored by the TMC” before expelling three partymen for anti-party activities. The State BJP chief was on Tuesday literally forced to remain confined inside the party headquarters when scores of workers demonstrated against what they termed “faulty nominations” in the forthcoming civic elections leveling cash-for-ticket charges against a set of leaders.
While on Tuesday the scuffle was mainly around distribution of tickets on Wednesday the agitators mostly from South 24 Parganas brought corruption charges against the district leadership saying “repeated complaints to State leadership have fallen on deaf ears.” One of them said “the BJP used to be a cadre-based party. But today it has been degenerated into a leader-based party with the leaders only listening to those who can pay.”
Even as the demonstrators continued to raise slogans, a group of lathi-weilding people, reportedly from the BJP’s Howrah unit, descended on the scene beating them away. In the melee a few people received injuries and had to be taken for treatment agitators said. Sinha later backed the operation saying “you cannot take such Trinamool sponsored drama lying down for hours on end. If the mischief mongers can create commotion for from 11 till 5 in the evening then our men are also not wearing bangles. They are bound to retaliate.”
He said “all save four persons who were creating problem yesterday were hooligans with different political affiliations.” On whether such problems would sully the image of the party in the run up to the civic elections Sinha said “the strong actions taken by the party would rather send a strong message that we are a tough party and would not tolerate any kind of indiscipline.”