Actor-turned BJP leader Rupa Ganguly was today heckled and her convoy attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters near Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district when she was returning to the city.
The incident happened when Ganguly, along with other BJP workers, was returning from Ishwaripur village near Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas after visiting a party worker, who was assaulted allegedly by TMC workers yesterday and was admitted to a local hospital there, a senior district police officer told PTI.
"Despite several requests, Rupa stopped her car and two other cars in her convoy near Diamond Harbour on her way to Kolkata and started talking to locals, which enraged them. Some boys threw stones at the convoy while few women from the locality pulled Rupa's hair and slapped another woman who was with her," the officer said.
The police posted there intervened and restrained the locals and took control of the situation, he said, adding though Rupa was "not injured", she was taken to a local hospital, where from she was released after a check-up.
"We have not arrested anybody in connection with the incident, but a police posting has been arranged in the locality," he said.
The BJP leader and the party workers accompanying her, however, alleged that they were attacked by TMC activists.
Ganguly, the chief of BJP's state Mahila Morcha unit, had unsuccessfully contested from Howrah (North) seat against TMC's laxmi Ratan Shukla in the just-concluded state assembly elections.
Terming today's attack on Rupa Ganguly allegedly by TMC supporters "another instance of absolute lawlessness" in West Bengal, former state BJP chief and national secretary Rahul Sinha demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
Sinha said Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC returned to power, "must stop talking and ensure that her partymen act properly and pay proper respect to a woman".
"What have they (TMC) started... Are they willing to make the state free of OppositionIJ They must remember that the CPI(M) which started this business have been wiped out of the state. I will ask the CM to stop her good talks and instead advise her party workers to behave properly," Sinha said.
Sinha also alleged that the policemen who were present at the place, where Ganguly was heckled, "did nothing" to protect her.
"They (Police) remained mute spectator. Had they acted timely this incident might not have happened," Sinha said, hinting at a bigger protest against the incident.
When contacted, BJP's state president Dilip Ghosh also criticised Mamata Banerjee and the police for "failing" to give proper protection to a woman "of Ganguly's stature".
He said the BJP was planning to gherao Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence at Kalighat in protest against the incident.
"Woman in today's West Bengal are not safe and this is happening when the Chief Minister herself is a woman... We condemn this attack on a woman of Rupa Ganguly's stature who is a renowned national actress.
"We are also considering to boycott Mamata Banerjee's swearing-in (ceremony) on May 27 and mark it as Kala Diwas... We may also call a bandh on that day," Ghosh said.