Several vehicles parked near BJP President Amit Shah’s rally venue in East Midnapore, West Bengal were reported to be vandalised on Tuesday. The vehicles were used to ferry people to the rally venue, which were parked near the rally site.
#WATCH West Bengal: Vehicles parked near Amit Shah’s rally venue in East Midnapore, vandalized. BJP’s Rahul Sinha has alleged that TMC is behind the attack. pic.twitter.com/N5lVGHjNT3
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2019
Public properties, private bikes and buses were in flames as violence enraged. After the incident, BJP blamed the ruling TMC in West Bengal and held the party responsible for ‘the attack’.
Soon after Shah left the spot, supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) clashed with each other. The two sides pelted stones at each other and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) had to be called in to control the situation.
Bus ferrying BJP karyakartas to Amit Shah’s West Bengal rally set ablaze; party blames TMC cadrehttps://t.co/afqyG9qio1
— Republic (@republic) January 29, 2019
As the event drew to a close, the BJP workers discovered several vehicles damaged. Blaming the TMC for the incident, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “The TMC is afraid of our strength that’s why they committed violence. It is unfortunate that everything happened in front of police. Attackers didn’t even spare women workers.”
The BJP’s secretary in-charge of West Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya, referring to the incident, warned the Cheif minister of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee saying that the attack “will cost dearly.”
Earlier, during the rally, Amit Shah sneered the TMC chief on various issues ranging from the Rohingya crisis to the state of poverty, from the attacks on the BJP workers in the state to the citizenship bill.
While Shah in his scathing attack on Mamta alleged that Banerjee’s paintings were bought by chit fund owners for crores of rupees, he also mocked her double standards alleging that she has a soft corner for infiltrators but takes a tough stand on refugees coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Addressing the public rally, Shah said, “I would like to ask Mamataji if she will support Citizenship Amendment Bill in Rajya Sabha or not and tell that to people of Bengal. They welcome infiltrators and Rohingya but there is no place here for the refugees who come to save themselves. I would like to tell all the refugees in Bengal that BJP and the Narendra Modi government will grant them the citizenship”.
Asserting that it was impossible for any state to flourish unless the roots of democracy are strengthened, Shah concluded that the West Bengal’s present generation is missing out on the past glory of the state. “This land of West Bengal has led the nation for many years. It provided cultural leadership, political leadership and commercial leadership but what has happened to that Bengal? Where did ‘Shonar Bangla’ go? Bengalis in India are searching for it. All are looking towards Bengal…For this nation, it might be an election to make Modi ji PM once again but for Bengal, the election means to re-build ‘Shonar Bangla’,” said Shah.
Shah also criticised the state government for creating an obstruction in BJP’s planned Yatras.
Meanwhile, TMC leader, Chandrima Bhattacharya has issued a defamation notice to BJP national president Amit Shah for his remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, asking to either give evidence in support of his statements or apologise publicly for his comments.
The Mamata government had denied permission to BJP to carry out their proposed ‘rath yatra’, which the party had planned to flag from Cooch Behar on December 7, citing threats of ‘communal disharmony’ in the state.
After being denied permission for their proposed ‘rath yatra‘ or the ‘Gantantra Bachao yatra’ in West Bengal, BJP had announced dates for the public meetings the party intends to carry out in the state of West Bengal.
Following this announcement BJP has been holding back-to-back rallies in West Bengal since last week. Last week Amit Shah had held a public rally at Jhargram district in West Bengal after the state government gave its approval for the same on January 23.
Last year, in August, a part of the tent erected for the public at a rally being addressed by PM Narendra Modi had collapsed in Midnapore, West Bengal, leaving several injured. An inquiry conducted then by a central team had blamed the state government for the lapse, stating that local authorities had not provided adequate cooperation to the advance security liaison team.
