BJP Activists Clash With Police During Protest Rally In North Bengal

BJP workers on Monday fought a pitched battle with the police in north Bengal, as they were stopped from moving past barricades at two points near branch secretariat 'Uttarkanya' in Siliguri during their rally in protest against TMC dispensation's "misrule".

The activists, as part of the 'Uttarkanya Abhijan' called by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), took out two protest marches, alleging that the state government has not fulfilled the promises made to the people of north Bengal, and benefits of the welfare schemes launched by the ruling dispensation has failed to reach common man.

The police used water cannons and burst tear gas shells to stop the BJP workers from moving ahead, and were pelted with stones by the protesters in return.

Some activists had even set fire to the bamboo barricades set up in the area.

The party's state president, Dilip Ghosh, who led a rally to Fulbari Bazar -- one of the two points approaching the secretariat building -- said the government was "using coercion" as it was scared of BJP's rise in Bengal.

Ghosh accused the local administration of setting up "a virtual island in Siliguri town by putting up multiple barricades in places to foil a democratic movement."

A second rally, led by party national secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJYM national unit president Tejaswi Surya, broke the first two layers of the police cordon near Tinbatti more -- about 1 km from Uttarkanya -- but could not past the third.

According to BJP sources, Vijayvargiya and Surya had to be escorted to their vehicles by their personal security guards.