Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) The leaders of all the political parties in West Bengal on Saturday condemned the heckling and physical assault of Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, at Sonarpur in South 24 Paragans district earlier in the day.

However, while describing the incident as unfortunate, the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the CPI-M reminded of the arrogant and provocative public speeches by Abhishek Banerjee at a number of campaign rallies before the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections, for which an FIR has already been registered against him.

State BJP President and the party’s Rajya Sabha member, Samik Bhattacharya, issued an appeal to all the people to maintain restraint and refrain from taking law into their own hands.

When asked why police were not reportedly there while the assault on Abhishek Banerjee took place, Bhattacharya said that it was for the state government to answer and not him.

“But I want to remind you that when the current West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was the Leader of the Opposition, there was an attempt to kill him in North Bengal. The BJP workers are showing a lot of restraint after the elections even though they were tortured mercilessly by the Trinamool Congress supporters during the previous Trinamool Congress government. There were so many instances of how mercilessly the previous ruling party activists resorted to terror and violence in the state, when their party was in power,” the State BJP President added.

State CPI-M Secretary and the party’s Politburo member, Md. Salim said that while the Saturday’s attack on Abhishek Banerjee was unfortunate, equally unacceptable was how he issued threats and provocative statements before the elections when he was enjoying unprecedented security cover just as an MP.

“Neither his (Abhishek Banerjee’s) statements then were desirable, nor the attack on him today is acceptable. But one must remember, BJP will always try to keep Trinamool Congress relevant in the political scene in West Bengal. Now the question is whether the incident was part of that plan or not,” Salim added.

State Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s legislator, Kunal Ghosh, condemned the decision of the West Bengal government to withdraw the security enjoyed by Abhishek Banerjee earlier.

“I strongly condemn the attack on Abhishek Banerjee. In the past we have seen the circumstances of withdrawing the security of the former Indian Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi. The same trend was evident at Sonapur today. What were the police doing when the attack on Abhishek Banerjee took place and continued for some time?” Ghosh asked.

At the time the report was filed, the police forces, accompanied by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel had already escorted Abhishek Banerjee out of Sonarpur.

Even while Abhishek Banerjee was being escorted out, the protesters standing on the two sides of the road shouted slogans and described him as a “thief”.

“My head could have been smashed today. Two or three female colleagues came with me. They are being kicked and beaten up on the streets. Is this Bengali culture? Bricks and stones have been thrown at me. Look at the condition of my glasses. If BJP is not involved in this, then why is BJP not taking action? I will also go to the Calcutta High Court over this incident. I will also go to the Supreme Court, if necessary,” the Trinamool Congress General Secretary said before leaving the spot.

–IANS

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