Kolkata, Aug 5 (IANS) The convoy of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, was attacked on Tuesday at Cooch Behar town in North Bengal after he reached there to participate in a scheduled protest rally.

Adhikari, along with 65 other party legislators, was scheduled to march through the Cooch Behar town to the office of the district police superintendent and submit a memorandum on the attacks on elected BJP representatives in the district in the recent past.

As the convoy of the LoP reached Khagrabari in Cooch Behar town, a group of Trinamool Congress activists rushed from the sides and tried to block the vehicles.

First, they started protesting by showing black flags to Adhikari. Soon, the mob turned violent and attacked the LoP’s convoy with bamboo sticks, iron rods, and started pelting stones and bricks on the cars in the convoy. Fortunately, the LoP did not receive any injury because of the bulletproof glass of the vehicle in which he was travelling.

The apprehension that tension might break out over the scheduled protest rally by the LoP was there for quite some time, since on the same day and at the same time, Trinamool Congress was organising parallel programmes at 19 places in Cooch Behar town.

The locations of the 19 parallel programmes were scheduled in such a manner that Suvendu Adhikari’s movement was virtually surrounded by the coinciding programmes of the state’s ruling party.

Strongly criticising the attack on the convoy of Adhikari, BJP’s state president in West Bengal, and the party’s Rajya Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya, said the attack was pre-planned and reflected the “nasty” political path adopted by Trinamool Congress.

He also said that there will be protest demonstrations against this attack across the state throughout the day.

According to West Bengal Minister in charge of North Bengal Development and Trinamool Congress legislator from Dinhata constituency in Cooch Behar district, Udayan Guha, the party programme at 19 places against the attack on Bengali language and Bengali-speaking people was prescheduled.

“Those who will insult Bengalis will have to face protests everywhere within the state,” Guha said.

–IANS

src/dpb