Kolkata: Kolkata Police have been on heightened alert since Tuesday morning due to three concurrent July 21 Martyrs’ Day rallies occurring in close proximity to each other. These events are being organised to honour the memory of 13 Youth Congress workers who lost their lives in police firing during a protest rally on this day in 1993, when the Left Front regime was in power, with the late Jyoti Basu serving as Chief Minister.
Till last year, there used to be one Martyrs’ Day rally organised by the previous ruling party, Trinamool Congress.
However, following changes in opposition politics in West Bengal over the last three months since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s landslide victory in the recently concluded Assembly polls, there will be three parallel Martyrs’ Day rallies this time.
The first rally will be organised by the minority faction in Trinamool Congress led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, who is the party’s general secretary. This rally will be in front of the Birla Planetarium in Central Kolkata.
The second rally will be held on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, also in central Kolkata, by the “rebel but majority” faction of the Trinamool Congress led by expelled party legislator Ritabrata Banerjee.
The third rally will be by the West Bengal Unit of Congress in front of Shahid Minar near Esplanade, also in central Kolkata. Congress contends that the real right to observe ‘Martyrs’ Day’ rests with it since the 13 youths killed in police firing on July 21, 1993, happened before the birth of Trinamool Congress. That year, the Youth Congress workers’ protest rally during which the firing took place was led by Mamata Banerjee, who was then Youth Congress president and the party’s Lok Sabha member.
At the same time, there will be a fourth rally on the same occasion, but that will be held at Rajghat in New Delhi. This rally will be conducted by the 20 erstwhile Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members led by four-time MPs, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Shatabdi Roy, who have recently joined Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).
It is learnt that a sufficient number of forces are being deployed in all three rally venues. According to the city police, 1,000 cops are being deployed at each of the three places. Surveillance will be carried out using drones at the three places.
At least five deputy commissioners, including those heading the Central Division and South Division, will be present at the meeting venues. Heavy Radio Flying Squad (HRFS) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) are also being deployed. A sufficient number of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are also being deployed to avoid any unrest.
(IANS)
