'Whenever they protest, their main target is to vandalise govt property, create ruckus'

KOLKATA: The face-off between Trinamool Congress and the saffron party over BJP Yuva Morcha's Nabanna Abhiyan on Thursday has received widespread criticism from TMC MLAs and ministers on social media who claimed that the BJP leaders had to hire leaders from outside the state as they do not have a face in Bengal.

BJP Yuva Morcha national president Tejasvi Surya of Karnataka was invited to Bengal to lead the protest rally. This is Surya's first protest rally after taking charge as national president of Yuva Morcha.

Bratya Basu, TMC minister, questioned BJP and said: "How much public property gets destroyed whenever BJP resorts to hooliganism. Who will pay for these damages done by your rented goons and outsiders."

Senior Trinamool Congress leaders are of the opinion that when Amit Shah came to Kolkata before the Lok Sabha elections and vandalism took place at Vidyasagar College and the bust of the social reformer was desecrated, BJP's hooliganism was evident. "Every time they organise protest rallies or events, their main target is to vandalise government property and create a ruckus. When police try to restrain them, they create commotion and try to blame the government for trying to prevent them from destroying public property and resorting to lathicharge," added Basu.

TMC leader and Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare department Shashi Panja tweeted: "The entire violence perpetrated by the @BJP4India goons near Nabanna was pre-planned and paid by senior leaders. Here a BJP leader can be heard asking a supporter whom they had failed to pay to talk to senior BJP leader @SanjaySinghWB for payments."

She also uploaded the voice recording of interaction between the BJP worker seeking money with a leader on her Twitter handle. The leader was heard asking the worker to meet another leader of the party Sanjay Singh at the party's "Rajya Dafter (state headquarter)".

Samir Chakraborty, TMC MLA of Taldangra, Bankura tweeted: "BJP leaders have indeed run out of leaders and ideas. Such is the state of affairs for Bengal BJP that they have to bring in Pappus from Karnataka to lead them."

According to social media trollers, ahead of the Assembly elections, BJP is trying to flex its muscle power and as a result, they have organised such a protest rally to show their strength.

Sadhan Sen, a Twitter user, wrote: "...today we have seen how BJP is trying to flex its muscle power by organising such a protest rally without highlighting the issues that need to be addressed."