West Bengal BJP chief, Dilip Ghosh’s convoy was attacked on Thursday by unidentified miscreants at Sitalkuchi area of Cooch Behar district. Video footage showed some people with their faces covered in black clothes attacking the vehicles with sticks.
Ghosh was in the district to attend the party’s ‘Rath Yatra’, which was scheduled to commence from December 7. He was attacked when he was on his way to Mathabanga in the district.
“TMC leaders attacked my car and shouted slogans demanding that I should go back. Some of my party workers were injured during the violence. The police were watching merely as mute spectators,” he said after the incident at Sitai More in Sitalkuchi.
Senior TMC leader Rabindranath Ghosh termed the allegation as baseless and said the attack was the result of internal discord within BJP. The district police administration said they are looking into the incident.
BJP has been facing bitterness by TMC members West Bengal over the BJP’s proposed ‘rath yatra’, or the ‘Save Democracy Rally’, comprising three ‘RathYatras’, in the state. This was scheduled to kick off by party President, Amit Shah on Friday, December 7.
However, Calcutta High Court today refused the party to hold the rally. The order came after the state government told the court that it has refused permission for the proposed ‘Rath Yatra’, citing possible “communal tension” as the reason behind the refusal. The court will hear the BJP’s appeal against the order tomorrow morning.
BJP had claimed that the Rath Yatra would be a ‘game changer’ and the deciding factor in West Bengal politics, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Amit Shah has targetted winning 22 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, several top BJP leaders and chief ministers such as Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Raman Singh, Yogi Adityanath, Uma Bharati and Giriraj Singh will participate in the campaign.
Modi is likely to attend four rallies to give a boost to the party’s campaign in the state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
