Union minister and former West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar faced “go back” slogans and a brief blockade of his convoy in Diamond Harbour, South 24-Parganas, triggering a fresh political confrontation between the BJP and the ruling Trinamul Congress ahead today.
Majumdar, who returned to Kolkata yesterday night after a foreign tour, was travelling to Diamond Harbour to meet party workers when he was allegedly attacked.
As Majumdar’s convoy entered Sarisa shortly after noon today, a group of youth surrounded the vehicles, raised slogans, and accused the BJP’s senior leadership of neglect.
Protesters, who claimed to be grassroots BJP workers, shouted, “We face attacks, but leaders only deliver speeches from the stage.”
However, Majumdar, a Union minister dismissed the claim that the agitators belonged to his party and accused the Trinamul Congress of orchestrating the obstruction.
“This is not the first time an attempt has been made to stop me in Diamond Harbour. TMC’s intimidation does not scare me. The entire protest was planned. There is no law and order in Bengal,” he told reporters.
Issuing a pointed warning, he added: “If we can help cool things down in Jammu and Kashmir, I can do it here too”- a remark that immediately drew criticism and added fuel to the political storm.
The TMC strongly rejected Majumdar’s allegations, arguing that the drama stemmed from internal discord within the BJP.
“It is entirely their internal feud. Those who protested were the BJP’s lower-rung cadres. Its organisation in Diamond Harbour has been fractured for years,” a TMC district functionary said.
Police, however, intervened shortly after the blockade began, clearing the route and allowing Majumdar to continue his visit to meet injured workers and their families.
Later in the evening, Majumdar posted on X, alleging that TMC workers had disguised themselves as BJP supporters to stage the protest.
He wrote in Bengali that individuals “wearing saffron scarves and applying tilak” were “pretending to be BJP workers” but were actually close associates of a local TMC leader and “notorious criminal”.
Calling the incident “cheap theatre,” he said those scripting such acts had “no value” and described the ruling party as “uneducated.”