TMC planned riots, pics prove it: Shah

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 15

Accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress of rioting during his Tuesday roadshow in Kolkata, BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday alleged that the state’s ruling party workers were part of a conspiracy to vandalise the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

Stepping up pressure on the West Bengal Government, a group of BJP Rajya Sabha members led by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar met Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and submitted a memorandum expressing concern on the violent attack on a member of the Upper House in public and the resulting breach of privilege.

Seeking a report on the violence and arson during Shah’s roadshow, Javadekar said: “Protection to Rajya Sabha members is the responsibility of the House and its Chairman.”

Earlier during his media briefing, Shah had asserted that the gate of the Vidyasagar college was shut till the conclusion of the roadshow, asking who opened the gate and vandalised the statue.

Claiming that the TMC was headed for a resounding defeat in West Bengal, Shah said CM Mamata Banerjee had been rattled with the rise of the BJP in the state. He also showed photographs to allege that TMC workers indulged in stone-pelting and arson, which were aimed at him and it would have been difficult for him to survive the attack but for the protection of the CRPF.

Shah alleged that the EC had been a mute spectator to the “attempts of rigging” in the state. “History-sheeters across the country are put behind bars during elections. Such criminal elements are freely indulging in political violence in the state. Why has the EC not acted against such history-sheeters?” he asked.

Questioning the silence of the EC over Banerjee’s open threat to BJP workers, the BJP chief said the party’s campaigners, including UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had been restrained from campaigning in West Bengal.

Shah said the TMC was contesting on 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, while the BJP was in the contest on much higher number of seats across the country. “If the BJP is indulging in violence, why no such incident takes place in any other part of the country? It just means that the TMC indulges in violence,” he said.

He said the party cadres wouldn’t be deterred by filing of an FIR against him. “Seven BJP workers were killed in the state as part of the TMC-staged political violence. We wouldn’t be deterred. People will answer with ballot in the seventh phase,” he said.