Kolkata's Left protests against razing of Lenin statue in Tripura

KOLKATA: Hundreds of Left activists on Tuesday poured out on the streets of Kolkata to protest against the demolition of a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Tripura after the BJP won the assembly elections in the northeastern state.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist brought out a huge rally from its Kolkata district office Pramode Dasgupta Bhawan to the base of the Communist patriarch's statue in the city hub Dharamtala.

Convened by the Kolkata district committee of the party, the rally saw the participation of senior CPI-M leaders including its General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, politburo members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Secretary of its West Bengal unit Surjya Kanta Mishra and state Left Front chairman Biman Bose.

Delegates attending the party's ongoing 25th state conference also walked the distance.

Raising the slogans condemning the incident and resolving to stand by the people of Tripura, the protestors carried banners with the picture of Lenin and held aloft scores of red flags.

They also decried the attacks on Marxist cadres, instances of arson targeting CPI-M offices and their capture by "BJP goons", and ransacking the houses of CPI-M workers and leaders.

Another Left party Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express their disgust over the happenings in Tripura.

The 11.5-feet fibre statue of Lenin was brought down with a bulldozer, allegedly by BJP activists near a government college in Belonia, South Tripura's district headquarters, around 90 km from Agartala on Monday evening.