‘In Bengal, goons can fire pistol, hurl bombs in front of cops’: Vijayvargiya

The BJP Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged that the police failed to take action against the miscreants despite seeing that bombs were hurled at people at a rally in Asansol.

The Bharatiya Janata Party lashed out at the ruling Trinamool Congress after clashes broke out between both sets of supporters in West Bengal’s Paschim Barddhaman district on Saturday.

The BJP Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged that the police failed to take action against the miscreants despite seeing that bombs were hurled at people. Vijayvargiya also lashed out at TMC and blamed them saying that the events were pre-planned.

Vijayvargiya told ANI, “We’ll hold protests in the entire West Bengal. Police are in cahoots with criminals as they were aware of the BJP rally in Asansol. It can only happen in Bengal that goons can hurl bombs and fire bullets in presence of state police.”

TMC leader Bidhan Upadhyay blamed BJP for the bombings and said that several people present in the BJP rally were carrying bombs. He said, “BJP had a rally in which people were carrying bombs. Some of our people were in the vicinity and carrying out a local govt scheme drive. Meanwhile, the BJP workers attacked us under the guise of the rally.”

The clashes happened at Bardhaman’s Barabani area where BJP was holding the ‘Aar Noy Anyay’ rally protesting against the Mamata Banerjee-led government. Both sides were involved in the clashes and had hurled bombs at each other, news agency PTI reported.

A few houses suffered some damage and some people suffered injuries due to these clashes.

Trinamool Congress has also said that the clashes were a result of internal fights within the BJP. The BJP continues to allege that the TMC party workers assaulted some of their members. “The clash was a result of infighting within the BJP. The TMC is not involved in the incident. The saffron party is trying to create an issue to malign us,” said TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.

BJP and TMC have been involved in a bitter war of words ahead of the 2021 West Bengal elections. Several incidents of clashes between cadres of both parties have been reported over the past few months.