Almost the entire Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership, apart from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, took to the streets of Kolkata on Saturday to protest the alleged insult to Ms. Banerjee by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Party Secretary General and the State’s Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, former Transport Minister Madan Mitra along with several other Ministers, led the protests. The TMC cadres also burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Protest marches were taken out at several places in the city, including Esplanade in Central Kolkata, Shyambazar in North Kolkata, Garihat and Tollygunge in South Kolkata as well as Jadavpur and Behala.
Speaking to journalists at a protest rally in Behala, Mr. Chatterjee accused the BJP leadership of “making provocative comments” and creating unrest. “Dilip Ghosh [BJP State president] is giving provocations in the hills. Even as the people of Darjeeling rejected Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung, BJP is trying to cling to him to survive in the hills,” he said.
Protest marches also happened in several districts by the TMC, including Birbhum, South 24 Paraganas, Purba Bardhaman and Bankura.
The State BJP leadership, however, scoffed at TMC’s protests. “They [TMC] have lost the people’s trust and hence are resorting to coercive tactics to win elections,” said Mr. Ghosh.
Earlier this week, he was allegedly heckled and his supporters thrashed by a section of locals during his visit to Darjeeling. Two persons have been arrested in the case so far. Mr. Ghosh alleged that the supporters of the GJM leader Binoy Tamang were behind the incident and accused the local police of inaction. Mr. Ghosh is one of the first party leaders from the plains to visit the hills after the strike demanding the separate State of Gorkhaland was withdrawn on September 27, after continuing for 100 days.