Clashes erupt as police block BJP’s march to Mamata Banerjee’s office

Clashes broke out between BJP workers and the West Bengal Police in Kolkata on Thursday as the party workers tried to break through barricades during their march towards Bengal secretariat ‘Nabanna’.

BJP has launched a state-wide ‘Nabanna Chalo’ agitation march to protest against the alleged killing of one of their leaders Manish Shukla on October 4.

The police, in return, restored to water cannons and fired tear gas shells, besides lathicharging the workers to disperse the crowd.

Several BJP workers, including state vice-president Raju Banerjee, were injured in the clash.

Party workers also set tyres on fire as a mark of protest. Leaders like Arjun Singh, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Locket Chatterjee and Mukul Roy were among those present on the spot.

The West Bengal government had earlier cited the Covid-19 pandemic to deny permission for the BJP youth wing’s ‘March to Nabanna’. The Mamata Banerjee-led government said peaceful and democratic rallies within “permissible parameters” of only 100 people would be allowed.

The government also announced that Nabanna will be closed for a two-day sanitisation exercise.