West Bengal: BJP candidate in ICU after accident

BONGAON/KALYANI: The BJP candidate for Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency, Shantanu Thakur, sustained serious head injuries hours before the campaign for the fifth-phase polls drew to a close on Saturday when an SUV bearing a police sticker collided head-on with his vehicle in Gaighata. The accident sparked protests from BJP supporters.
BJP leaders wasted no time in giving a conspiracy twist to the accident in a bid to draw public sympathy. Trinamool minister Jyotipriyo Mullick countered the charge saying it was nothing short of “drama”. Mullick and North 24 Parganas SP C Sudhakar said the SUV that collided with Thakur’s vehicle was requisitioned by the central paramilitary forces. “It was used by a central force company commander,” the SP said.
Kailash Vijayvargiya visits Shantanu Thakur in Bongaon Hospital on Saturday
Thakur was headed for a campaign road show with BJP national leader Kailash Vijayvargiya in Nadia’s Kalyani and Haringhata assembly segments — that are part of Bongaon Lok Sabha — when the accident happened barely 2km from the Nadia-North 24 Parganas border. Around 11.40am, Thakur and others were travelling in a car when an SUV coming from the other end and bearing a ‘police on election duty’ sticker hit the corner on the driver’s side of Thakur’s vehicle. The jerk threw the BJP candidate forward and he hit the dashboard. It could not be confirmed whether he was wearing his seat belt.
While the driver of the SUV fled without his vehicle, BJP workers and leaders trailing Thakur in a seven-vehicle convoy rescued and took him to Bongaon Hospital where he was admitted in the ICU. BJP leaders Sukhen Gain and Gopal Biswas were also in the vehicle and were injured. They were admitted in the same hospital — Gain with chest injuries and Biswas with a fractured arm. Thakur was later shifted to Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals in Kolkata.
BJP workers on vans that were part of the convoy allegedly damaged the offending SUV and two police vehicles that reached the spot from Gaighata police station soon after. Some cops were injured in the attack. BJP workers then launched a road blockade at the spot, which lasted till 1.30pm, when a large police force reached the spot. Officers assured the agitators that the unidentified driver of the SUV would be traced and arrested.
With Thakur in hospital, Vijayvargiya led the road show on behalf of the party candidate. Later, he visited Thakur and said, “I have spoken with doctors treating him. He is stable but will have to undergo a CT scan. We will write to the Election Commission as this is an attempt on our candidate.”
Trinamool’s North 24 Parganas president Jyotipriya Mullick said: “Thakur was travelling in a vehicle with a UP number plate. A sum of Rs 25,000 was found inside it after the accident. They were planning to distribute this money during the road show. This is a fake accident and Thakur is enacting a drama to gain sympathy as he knows he faces certain defeat.”
BJP state committee leader Santanu Chatterjee said, “If it is illegal to campaign in a vehicle with a UP number plate, the Trinamool is welcome to complain to the EC. But this was an attempt to murder our candidate. Our leader Mukul Roy has lodged complaints with the commission and the local Gaighata police station.”
BJP is pinning its hopes on Bongaon. In fact, when BJP national president Amit Shah mentioned that his party would win 23 seats in Bengal, Bongaon figured prominently on that list, state BJP sources said.