The convoy of West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Dilip Ghosh was attacked in the Jaigaon area of the state’s Alipurduar district on Thursday, 12 November. Stones were pelted and the convoy was greeted with black flags and go back slogans when Ghosh was on his way to attend party programmes.
Sources told news agency PTI that Ghosh’s convoy was partially damaged but it is yet unclear who was behind this attack.
Ghosh, however, has alleged that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) & Bimal Gurung-led faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) had plotted the attack on his convoy, PTI reported.
Several Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) activists were seen raising slogans against Ghosh, asking him to leave. A team of police officers dispersed the situation before it could escalate and forced protestors and saffron camp supporters to leave, PTI reported.
Dilip Ghosh addressed the incident and told the media that, “The TMC and their friends are getting desperate as they can sense defeat in the upcoming Assembly polls. However such tactics won’t work. People are with us. Such attacks by the ruling party and its allies prove that law and order has collapsed in the state. In a democracy such things don’t happen,” he said.
District TMC chief Sourav Chakraborty responded to Ghosh’s allegations by saying that his party members were not involved in the attack and Ghosh was trying to merely ferment trouble.
The GJM, led by Bimal Gurung, recently joined hands with the TMC, while the Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha outfit has always been an ally of the ruling party, reported PTI.
TMC at Loggerheads with Ghosh
This attack on Ghosh has come a few days after the West Bengal BJP chief in a controversial statement on Sunday, 8 November, issued a warning to supporters of the Trinamool Congress workers, saying that they should mend their ways or they risk having their arms and legs broken and even being killed.
TMC responded to Ghosh’s statement by saying that this shows BJP is trying to unleash a reign of terror in West Bengal.
(Inputs from PTI, Indian Express and India Today)
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