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‘Will fight or die’: At Kolkata dharna, Mamata Banerjee says BJP trying to break TMC with ‘bulldozer politics’
The demonstration witnessed massive noisy scenes as TMC workers and supporters raised slogans during the former chief minister's address.
Former West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday held a massive ‘dharna’ (protest) in central Kolkata against alleged post-poll attacks on party workers and leaders, including MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Banerjee reached the dharna site at Esplanade's Y-channel after the TMC's appeal to hold the protest at the adjacent Rani Rashmoni Road was turned down by the Kolkata Police, the party claimed.
In some of her sharpest digs at the BJP, now in power in the state, she vowed to “fight or die” against attacks on party leaders and the "forceful" eviction of hawkers.
“Ladenge ya marenge (I will fight or die),” she chanted at the dharna site.
Among the many concerns she raised were attacks on the BJP over not being granted permission to hold the protest on Rani Rashmoni Road in the state capital.
"We were not given permission to set up a stage or use microphones," she said, addressing supporters through a megaphone.
At the protest, she said that “anti-BJP parties” will meet in Delhi soon to decide “on our country-wide course of action”.
The demonstration witnessed noisy scenes as hundreds of TMC workers and supporters raised slogans during the former chief minister's address.
Banerjee was joined by several senior party leaders, including Kolkata mayor and MLA Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Derek O'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee and Dola Sen.
The TMC chief said the dharna, organised over the alleged attack on her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday, claims of post-poll violence and the eviction of hawkers, would continue until the evening as planned.
The protest comes after Abhishek Banerjee was pelted with bricks, stones and eggs during a visit to Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas, resulting in an alleged injury to his eye.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee has also claimed that there was an "attempt to murder" him near Chanditala Police Station when he had gone there to submit a deputation.
