The Opposition BJP’s 12-hour bandh in West Bengal evoked a mixed response on Wednesday amid clashes between party workers and police in several parts of the state.

The BJP had called the bandh against the police action on protesters during Tuesday’s march to Nabanna, the state secretariat, over the rape and murder of a young trainee doctor at Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College and Hospital earlier this month.

Since early Wednesday morning, BJP workers hit the streets, blocking roads and railway tracks across the state to implement the 12-hour bandh. Train services were initially disrupted between the Bangaon-Sealdah section and the Bandel-Howrah route, and were later reinstated.

An official of the Eastern Railway said bandh supporters blocked tracks at 49 places under its jurisdiction in the state and the blockades were lifted at most places.

Picketing by BJP supporters led to the disruption of public transport services in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Siliguri, and Malda in northern West Bengal, and in Purulia, Bankura, and some other places in the southern part of the state.

In state Capital Kolkata, there were fewer buses, auto-rickshaws, and taxis on roads than on normal weekdays. Private vehicles were also significantly less, though markets and shops remained open. Schools and colleges were open, but attendance in most private offices was less, with employees working from home. Many schools opted for online classes instead.

Tension erupted in the Ghoshpara area of Bhatpara in the North 24 Parganas district over an alleged firing incident.

BJP leader Priyangu Pandey claimed that supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress opened fire and threw bombs at his car. “I was going to our leader Arjun Singh’s residence…We had moved some distance and we found that the road was blocked by a jetting machine from the Bhatpara municipality. The moment our car stopped, around 50-60 people targeted our vehicle,” Pandey, who recently joined the BJP after quitting TMC, said.

“Seven-eight bombs were thrown at my vehicle and then six-seven round firing was done. This is a conspiracy of the TMC and the police. They planned to kill me. My security was withdrawn and then this incident happened,” he alleged.

A purported video of the alleged incident showed bullets being fired at a car while Pandey was inside it.

Former Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh alleged that two BJP leaders were targeted in Bhatpara during the bandh. He said the car driver was also injured in the incident.

The BJP leader alleged that the police did nothing when the “bombs were thrown”.

The injured were first taken to the Barrackpore State General Hospital and later to a private hospital, he said.

Several BJP leaders were detained across the state for attempting to enforce the shutdown. They included former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya, and MLA Agnimitra Paul.

Ganguly and Paul were detained from south Kolkata’s Gariahat area when they were urging traders to down their shutters and requesting people to support the bandh.

Locket Chatterjee was detained from Shyambazar when she was leading a demonstration, while Samik Bhattacharya was detained from Wipro More in Salt Lake Sector 5.

State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, a Union minister, led a procession at Baguihati in the northern fringes of the city but had an altercation with the police who tried to stop him. Former MP Debasree Choudhury and hundreds of party workers accompanied him.

In Alipurduar, BJP MP Manoj Tigga was arrested for allegedly enforcing the bandh.

In Kaliaganj town in North Dinajpur district, BJP workers took out a procession and blocked the main road, after which the police came and dispersed the crowd. Except for a few scattered incidents, the situation in Kaliaganj was normal and no untoward incident occurred anywhere amid tight police security.

In Hooghly district’s Konnagar, TMC and BJP workers clashed over enforcing of bandh. BJP workers gathered at the Konnagar Film Square to enforce the bandh and allegedly threatened local traders to close their shops. As TMC workers reached the area to counter the bandh, a scuffle broke out between the two sides. The clashes continued for some time.

Leader of the Opposition in Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, led a protest march in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, his home district.

In Malda, TMC and BJP workers engaged in a brawl over the blocking of a road. Police intervened to disperse the two groups.

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea against the 12-hour ‘Bangla Bandh’ called by the BJP since the petitioner was debarred perpetually from filing PILs in a previous order.

Petitioner Sanjoy Das, who claimed to be a lawyer practising at the High Court, sought that the bandh be declared illegal.

A Division Bench, presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, dismissed the PIL, as the court in its previous order perpetually debarred Das from presenting any PIL and had imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on Das.

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