Kolkata: TMC office in New Market vandalised using bulldozer by mob carrying BJP flags

Several structures, including a Trinamool Congress office, in the New Market area of Kolkata were vandalised by a mob carrying flags of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, according to reports.

Videos widely shared on social media showed the group using a bulldozer to raze a structure.

Among the structures vandalised was the TMC’s New Market Union office, which was allegedly the primary target of the mob, The Hindu reported.

TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien claimed that the bulldozer had been “brought in to demolish meat shops” as part of the BJP’s “victory celebration”.

The central forces were “standing around”, he claimed on social media.

The incident occurred a day after the BJP on Monday defeated the TMC in the West Bengal Assembly elections. The Hindutva party won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.

Police personnel were deployed at the spot following the incident and security arrangements have been increased in the area, also known as the Hogg Market, India Today reported.

While it is unclear what triggered the act of vandalism and the sequence of events, the TMC accused the BJP leadership of enabling the violence.

“BJP’s ‘Poriborton’ has arrived and it has arrived with a bulldozer,” the party said on social media. “In an act of brazen hooliganism and gundagardi, mobs of BJP supporters went on a rampage near the New Market area, destroying shops and vandalising the Trinamool Congress party office.”

The BJP had campaigned in the elections on the slogan of “Poriborton”, or change.

“This is the celebration of a party that spoke of trust and delivered terror,” the TMC said. “Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have handed their [workers] a licence to let loose on the streets, to mow down whatever stands in their path, to attack, brutalise and kill whosoever they please.”

The incident in New Market came amid reports of several TMC offices in the state being vandalised or attacked following the election results.

On Tuesday, the TMC alleged that one of its workers had been murdered by members of the BJP hours after the poll results became known.

In its social media post after the New Market incident, the party claimed: “The central forces have been given one instruction. To stand down and let [the violence] happen.”

Ahead of the elections, the Election Commission deployed 2.4 lakh Central Armed Police Forces personnel in the state. About 500 companies, or 50,000 personnel, are expected to remain in place for at least two months after the results.

After reports emerged of violence following the election results, the BJP on Tuesday claimed that the incidents of vandalism were the result of internal rifts within the TMC, and that some of those carrying out violence were using the Hindutva party’s flags.

“Members of the TMC are attacking each other, and some of them are using BJP flags,” BJP’s West Bengal chief Samik Bhattacharya had claimed while speaking to PTI on Tuesday.

However, Bhattacharya had told ANI that if any BJP workers engage in vandalism, the party would be compelled to expel them.

Also read:

• SIR to CRPF: Five factors that helped the BJP conquer Bengal
• How the BJP played the Bangladesh card during the Bengal poll campaign