Kolkata: Scores of people hurled stones, eggs and abuses at TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who escaped the mob wearing a cricket helmet and helped by aides Saturday in Sonarpur town of South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.
Banerjee was attacked when he went to visit the victims of post-poll violence, and later claimed that BJP activists were trying to kill him.
In a dramatic and unprecedented outburst of public anger, unidentified people scuffled with the leader and roughed him up while raising chants of “thief, thief”.
The situation quickly spiralled into chaos, with some members of the crowd reportedly attempting to physically attack Banerjee by raining blows and kicks on him, prompting swift intervention by security personnel.
Television footage from the scene captured the intensity of the confrontation, showing a visibly shaken Banerjee being escorted through the area under heavy personal security and local TMC workers.
Wearing a police-issued helmet for protection, the TMC leader was seen with his shirt torn amid the melee, underscoring the volatile nature of the incident.
The attack, led mostly by local women in the Kamrabad area falling under ward 9 of Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality, was, allegedly an explosion of the pent-up anger accrued on account of years of “torture perpetrated by TMC-run syndicates and extortion rackets” and abject lack of governance leading to broken roads, clogged drains and poor drinking water supply.
Banerjee’s alleged “veiled threats” during his pre-election campaigns also led to the violent repercussions, locals claimed.
Banerjee, who was trying to enter the area pillion riding on a motorcycle, was forced to disembark from the vehicle when agitated locals gathered around it, shouting slogans and pelting shoes and eggs at him.
Despite the resistance, the MP chose to reach his destination, about a kilometre away, on foot, when the situation turned even more chaotic with hundreds of agitated locals trying to block his move with violent means.
“They wanted to kill me. The whole incident has been captured on camera. We will definitely let the high court know about this. We will also let the governor know about this. I will definitely move court,” Banerjee said while meeting the kin of Sanju Karmakar, who allegedly died in post-poll violence.
“It’s all BJP-sponsored. Look what they have done. This is their example of democracy. It hasn’t even been a month, and the police are nowhere to be seen. My head was somehow spared; fortunately, I was wearing a helmet. They have torn my clothes and broken my spectacles,” he alleged.
Claiming there was no police presence at the spot when he was attacked, said he won’t leave the area until police arrive.
“I will not abandon Sanju’s elderly parents in this condition until additional forces arrive. I will once again ask our workers to contact the police,” he said.
Local women, holding broomsticks and bamboo sticks, gathered outside the house of the TMC party worker Banerjee visited.
Questioning the purpose of his visit, they raised slogans against Banerjee.
“Why has he come here? The person whose house he has come to visit is also a thief. It is like a thief visiting another thief,” one of the protesting women alleged.
“Where was he (Abhishek) when the Abhaya incident (RG Kar rape and murder) happened? How many times had he gone to meet the parents of Abhaya? We want an answer from him,” another protesting woman said.
Another protestor said that Banerjee “had it coming” since the day he issued “veiled threats” from pre-election rallies.
“He had said from campaign stages that he would play DJ music from May 4 after results were declared and no father-figure from Delhi would come to protect us. That’s why we have gathered here today to pay him back in his own coin,” he said.
A large contingent of district police from the local Sonarpur police station, accompanied by armed central forces, later reached the spot.
They escorted the TMC leader out of the area, even as women were seen standing on rooftops and raising slogans against Banerjee.
Banerjee was later briefly admitted to a private hospital in Kolkata from where he was discharged following primary medical attention.
Reacting sharply to the development, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee pointed fingers at the BJP.
“RULERS BECAME KILLERS- shame on you BJP!” she wrote on X.
The TMC chief, alongside party leaders Firhad Kakim and Derek O’Brien, also visited the hospital where Abhishek had checked in.
Denouncing the attack, BJP West Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya said such incidents aren’t desirable in a healthy and normal society, while insisting that the saffron party was in no way involved.
“The BJP is not involved in such activities. But what happened could be the outcome of the anger of locals who were tortured over the years,” Bhattacharya said.
The leader, though, drew attention to the alleged atrocities inflicted upon BJP workers and leaders over the years by the TMC, claiming post-poll situation in West Bengal remains largely violence-free on account of his party’s policy to shun political terror.
“I will not be able to say why police were not there; it is a matter of the administration. I represent the party. What the TMC has done to our party workers all these years cannot be forgotten. We still remember what they did to Roopa Ganguly,” Bhattacharya said, in apparent reference to the attack on Ganguly’s convoy in May, 2016 during her visit to victims of political violence in Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district, where she suffered head injuries.
“One mustn’t forget that the TMC had earlier tried to burn Suvendu Adhikari, who is now the CM, inside his car in north Bengal. Several of our national party presidents have been attacked in this very district,” he said.
“The TMC still exists today because the BJP is restrained,” he added.
