Bengal BJP alleges police obstructed party to observe ‘Paschimbanga Divas'
A political slugfest over the observance of statehood day has been on for the last two years between the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government and the ruling party's prime opposition in the state, the BJP.
Kolkata, Jun 20 (PTI) West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar alleged on Friday that the Kolkata Police resisted the party's attempts to observe 'Pashchimbanga Divas' by trying to stop a two-wheeler rally headed by him from reaching Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's residence on Elgin Road in the southern part of the city.
On that day in 1947, the Legislative Assembly of undivided Bengal met and voted in favour of partition of the state between East and West Bengal. The latter stayed with India while the former was included in Pakistan.
The Friday face-off between activists of the BJP Yuva Morcha and the city police took place outside the Bhowanipore residence of Jan Sangh founding member, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, where the workers had assembled to pay their respects to the leader and then planned to reach Netaji Bhavan, a kilometre away, on two-wheelers and foot.
'We told the police that we will only carry the Tricolour and no party flags in this rally. Even then the police obstructed our movement and arrested our workers,' Majumdar alleged.
A small team of party workers, including Majumdar and the state BJP Yuva Morcha president Indranil Khan, later managed to reach Bose's residence on two-wheelers and garland the leader's bust outside the house.
'We failed to understand the police's logic behind this obstruction. This wasn't a political rally and our destination was Netaji's house which lies in the same ward as that of the residence of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. It is evident that we will either walk or reach there on motorcycles,' Khan said.
The only possible explanation is that the police were pressed by the Mamata Banerjee government to stop us from observing Paschimbanga Divas, Khan said.
Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition, earlier led a colourful march of BJP legislators from the assembly premises to the statue of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee on Red Road in central Kolkata about two kilometres away and garlanded it.
'This is a historic day which we must observe. On this day in 1947, the West Bengal Assembly under the leadership of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee passed a resolution to remain in India,' Adhikari said, amid chants of Vande Mataram and fervent appeals from rally participants to observe the day as 'Paschimbanga Divas'. PTI SMY NN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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