Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee, the former Chief Minister of West Bengal and current leader of the minority faction in the Trinamool Congress, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday of trying to disrupt the Martyrs’ Day rally that her faction has organised later in the day.
She also claimed that there were attempts by BJP activists to vandalise her protest rally stage in front of Birla Planetarium in Central Kolkata on Monday night.
She also claimed that after hearing the information, she rushed to the rally venue along with her nephew, the party’s general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee and other leaders of her faction; and thereafter guarded the stage throughout the night in turns.
“Our supporters are being prevented from coming to the meeting. The police are threatening the families of the martyrs not to come to the meeting. Everything cannot be done by force like this. We are remembering the martyrs. Our stage is being broken. The electricity and microphone lines were disconnected. Posters and banners are being torn. Around 60 BJP-backed goons did all these. It is led by a criminal, who is currently out on bail. There has been a conspiracy since the beginning to sabotage the event with the police on one side and the BJP on the other side,” Mamata Banerjee said.
She pointed out that the faction led by her was organising the rally in front of Birla Planetarium following an order from Kolkata. “The police administration is resorting to contempt of court by trying to disrupt our rally. Do not play with the law of the land. If you continue to do that, we will file a contempt of court petition against the state government and the police administration,” the former Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal unit of Congress has complained that its supporters were being stopped from coming to Kolkata to attend a parallel rally on the same occasion in front of Shahid Minar in Esplanade, Central Kolkata.
The state Congress president, Suvankar Sarkar, issued a statement in the morning claiming that the BJP workers vandalised a bus carrying Congress workers heading towards Kolkata from Durgapur in West Burdwan district. He also alleged that a similar attack was carried out in Potashpur in East Midnapore district.
(IANS)
