Violence Erupts in a BJP rally at West Bengal, India

Riots erupted when Police stopped the BJP party's protest rally to the Secretariat. Several uniformed police personnel were injured alon...

Riots erupted when Police stopped the BJP party's protest rally to the Secretariat. Several uniformed police personnel were injured along with BJP leaders Mina Devi Purohit and Swapan Dasgupta, when the mob turned violent with refusal to proceed the rally.

Earlier on Tuesday, a clash broke out between BJP workers and Police outside the Raniganj railway station as workers leave for Kolkata to take part in the march on Tuesday. The police took many workers into preventive custody in Raniganj.

Buses carrying BJP workers, on their way to Kolkata to participate in the Nabanna Chalo march, were stopped by the police in North 24 Parganas. Several roads across Kolkata have been blocked with barricades. To prevent the procession, the police have turned the 5-kilometre radius around Nabanna into a fortress.

"While I.N.Congress is marching along with no confrontation by the ruling parties in their regions, BJP rallies are targeted by the ruling/opposition leaders tainting and treating them as Hooligans is questionable, even when senior citizens are mistreated in such events."
Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, told reporters that “at least 1.5 lakh BJP workers were stopped by the police despite this being a programme that was announced earlier”.

Kolkata Joint CP (Crime), Murlidhar Sharma, said “90 people were arrested” in connection with the violence, and that 27 policemen, including two officers, were injured. “We are examining CCTV footage and identifying those who set the police vehicle on fire. Those involved will be arrested soon,” he said.

The protest rally was against the TMC regime's alleged corrupt practices, when the ruling party used Police to stop the opposition to question the wrong doings. Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, the party's Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee and senior leader Rahul Sinha were among those detained during the march.

"Everyone got to see how the partisan police tried scuttling a leader of opposition's democratic right to protest outside Nabanna. I was manhandled by a woman constable, people saw that too," Adhikari told reporters before being whisked away in a prison van.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar staged a sit-in in Howrah after being stopped from carrying forward the rally.

"This autocratic Mamata Banerjee government does not believe in giving space to opposition parties," he said.

Mr Majumdar also claimed that it was a shame that the police were acting in a partisan manner, further claiming that "some of them have turned into puppets of ruling TMC".

The BJP state chief and senior leader Agnimitra Paul were later detained from a protest site at Howrah Maidan.

BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who led the protesters near Howrah bridge, left the site in the midst of a lathicharge on his party's supporters.

"Our fight against this jungle raj will continue," Ghosh said.

BJP state youth wing president Saumitra Khan said "days of the TMC is numbered" and BJP will surely give a reply to all the atrocities committed on party men.

The TMC, in a tweet, said, "BJP4Bengal karyakartas or hooligans?" "Destroying and damaging government property, attacking police personnel, causing chaos and disrupting peace across the state -- today's activities of BJP that brought shame upon the entire nation. We strongly condemn such outrageous behaviour," the party said in the microblogging site.

“The police are even targeting senior citizens in our rally. They are beating up our workers. Many are injured,” said Majumder before his arrest. “We have been peaceful. Police lathi-charged, used water cannons and lobbed tear gas shells. They also pelted stones at us. We are not here for fighting,” Ghosh said.

On twitter BJP posted an image, purportedly of one of its workers getting hit by the police, describeing the forces as TMC’s “slaves”.

“Do they have the guts to slap corrupt Trinamool Congress leaders like this? The police is now the cadre of the corrupt political party,” the BJP posted.

BJP alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government does not want to give space to opposition parties, the TMC described the saffron camp workers as ‘hooligans’.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged that the BJP was fomenting trouble under the garb of protest.

"It is part of a bigger game plan to destabilise West Bengal this festive season. This is not democratic movement. This is goondaism," he added.
Seven trains were hired by the BJP to bring its supporters from north and south Bengal on Monday for the protest march to 'Nabanna'.

Sukanta Majumdar said Mamata Banerjee is scared and ran away after seeing the strength of the people gathered here.

“Only 30 per cent are here today, some of the rest were detained yesterday,” he said.

A police vehicle was also torched in Kolkata in the melee.

The Calcutta high court sought a report from the West Bengal home secretary over the BJP's Nabanna Abhijan. The report will have to be submitted on September 19. The HC further directed the police to not illegally detain any person and also ensure that there is no damage to public property.