NADDA’S CONVOY ATTACKED IN BENGAL, CENTRE SEEKS REPORT FROM GOVERNOR

Kolkata: BJP president J.P. Nadda has reacted sharply to the attack allegedly carried out by Trinamool Congress supporters when he was travelling from Kolkata to Diamond Harbour in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Thursday.

Nadda said he could only stay safe because he was travelling in a bullet-proof car, even as vehicles of other BJP leaders were damaged in the incessant stone-pelting. BJP national general Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya was also injured in the attack.

Addressing party workers on Thursday on the second day of his two-day visit to the state, Nadda said, “Today I have come here, but the scene I got to view on the way tells me that under Mamata Banerjee’s reign, Bengal has become synonymous with anarchy and intolerance. Today, I could come here only with the blessings of Maa Durga. The TMC goons had left no stone unturned to choke democracy.”

The BJP president further said, “Look at Kailash Vijayvargiya and Rahul Sinha’s vehicles. I could stay safe only because I was travelling in a bullet-proof car. Otherwise, there was no car today that wasn’t attacked. This anarchy won’t last long. Mamata ji’s government is going and the lotus will bloom in Bengal.”

Nadda accused the TMC of politicising the police and administration in Bengal. “The police and the administration have been politicised here,” he said. “We have to stop it and make the lotus (the BJP’s party symbol) bloom in the state.”

Meanwhile, taking a serious note to the attack on the BJP president, the Centre has sought a report from West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on the law and order situation in the state, the government sources informed on Friday.

This comes after Union Home Secretary wrote to West Bengal Chief Secretary on the “attack” on the convoy of the BJP chief. The Home Secretary in his letter has asked the Chief Secretary to provide adequate security to Nadda, the sources said.

As part of his 120-day tour of the country, Nadda is on a two-day visit to West Bengal from Wednesday, where he is participating in various programmes aimed at “strengthening the party at the base as well as at the booth level” as West Bengal Assembly polls are scheduled to take place next year.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has condemned the alleged attack on Nadda’s convoy while it was on its way to Diamond Harbour area in West Bengal from Kolkata. Shah said the central government is taking this attack “very seriously”.

“Today, the National President of BJP in Bengal @JPNadda was attacked. The attack is condemnable. The central government is taking this attack very seriously. The Bengal government will have to answer to the peace loving people of the state for this sponsored violence,” Shah tweeted.

He added that the state had gone into an era of tyranny under the Trinamool Congress’ rule and democratic values were being threatened in the state.“Bengal has gone into an era of tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool rule. The manner in which political violence has been institutionalised and brought to the extreme within West Bengal under TMC rule is sad and worrying for all those who believe in democratic values,” he said in a subsequent tweet.