The men allegedly pushed and beat the TMC member even as security personnel tried to protect him.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was allegedly manhandled on Saturday afternoon by dozens of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, including women, in Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas.
The men allegedly pushed and beat the TMC member even as security personnel tried to protect him. The women allegedly threw eggs and sandals at him and threatened him.
Shouts of “chor chor” (thief, thief) were heard as Banerjee walked on the road wearing a helmet and his shirt torn. People allegedly hurled abuses at him and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
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“These are all BJP-backed troublemakers,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee had gone to Sonarpur to meet the family members of TMC worker Sanju Karmakar, who was allegedly killed in post-poll clashes.
He said: “They want to kill me. Let them kill me. Let my body be recovered from here. But I will not surrender and abandon Karmakar’s parents. Ask the police to send reinforcements… I will draw the attention of the Calcutta High Court and the Governor to the absence of police personnel. I will move the Supreme Court.”
“When the junior doctor was raped at RG Kar Hospital, TMC leaders never went to meet her parents. TMC has protected the accused people… We will not leave him,” a woman at the scene said.
Another woman said: “He is a sand mafia and a coal smuggler. We will crush him. We will kill him. He has to answer why he rapes women in West Bengal.”
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Earlier in the day, Banerjee went to meet the family members of another TMC worker, Biswajit Pattanayak, who was also killed in the post-poll clashes in Kolkata’s Belighata area.
“I heard that BJP workers are trying to create some trouble in Sonarpur when I go there,” he said earlier in the day.
“If the TMC had come to power this time, at least 500 BJP workers would have been killed. If the Communist Party of India or the Congress had been in power, the man (Banerjee) who made the statements… would have been lynched. We have seen atrocities and violence unleashed by TMC leaders in the past in South 24 Parganas. I would urge all political parties to maintain peace and shun violence. Every political party must respect the rights of the people,” he said. Samik Bhattacharya, state BJP president.
