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Amit Shah behind attacks on TMC leaders in Tripura: Mamata
The TMC chief alleged that the life of her nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had rushed to Tripura to monitor the situation on Sunday, was in danger.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Monday that Union home minister Amit Shah orchestrated the weekend attack on 14 Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in Tripura and their subsequent arrest while they were on a visit to the north-eastern state to prepare for next year’s assembly elections.
“Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb does not have much courage. I firmly believe that the instructions came from Amit Shah and the Union home ministry,” Banerjee told reporters after visiting youth TMC leaders Jaya Dutta and Sudip Raha at the state-run SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.
The TMC chief alleged that the life of her nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had rushed to Tripura to monitor the situation on Sunday, was in danger.
“Abhishek’s car was attacked last week,” she said, referring to an incident on August 2 wherein Abhishek was shown black flags in Agartala and his vehicle was hit with bamboo sticks by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker.
“Abhishek was saved because the (Tripura) government had provided a bullet-proof car. Had it been an ordinary car, the windshield would have shattered into pieces. He could have suffered a head injury,” the chief minister said while referring to the BJP as a “party of demons”.
Abhishek was on a visit to the state after 23 members of political strategist Prashant Kishor’s Indian-Political Action Committee (I-PAC) team were booked and asked to stay inside a hotel in Agartala for violating Covid-19 norms.
“Whenever Abhishek boards a plane, five ruffians are placed in the seats around him. His life is in danger. Instructions have been sent to Tripura so that we cannot hire planes and helicopters,” Banerjee said.
“Before being arrested, our youth leaders were assaulted in front of the police. The police did not arrange for their treatment or even give them water for 36 hours,” she added.
Reacting to the chief minister’s allegations, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “If the chief minister claims that goons are boarding planes to pose a threat to Abhishek Banerjee, her police are free to arrest them at the Kolkata airport. What is stopping them?”
“As far as whatever she said about Amit Shah is concerned, we leave it to the judgement of the masses. The BJP has not become so intellectually bankrupt that it has to react to such allegations. The TMC is an insignificant force in Tripura,” Bhattacharya added.
On Saturday, TMC youth front leaders Debangshu Bhattacharya, Sudip Raha and Jaya Dutta, who were touring Tripura as part of the party’s plans to prepare for assembly polls in 2023, alleged that their vehicles were stopped and attacked on Ambassa Road by goons backed by the BJP. The TMC leaders also claimed that shots were fired and a party office was vandalised in Dharmanagar, the biggest Tripura town after Agartala.
On Sunday morning, the three leaders, along with 11 others, were arrested for violating Covid-19 restrictions by travelling after 7pm. Tripura has been observing a night curfew for 10 hours starting from 7pm in the wake of the pandemic. All the TMC leaders were charged under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code but were granted bail by a local court later in the day.
Following this, Abhishek rushed to Tripura along with Bengal minister Bratya Basu, Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen and TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh and returned with the injured youth leaders on Sunday night.
