Agartala/Kolkata, Aug 8: At least 14 leaders and staff of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), together with these injured in an alleged assault by BJP staff yesterday, have been arrested in Tripura’s Khowai district on Sunday for “violating Covid norms”, police mentioned. The TMC activists have been produced earlier than the CJM courtroom in Khowai, which granted them bail, the celebration’s Tripura unit spokesperson, Ashish Lal Singh, mentioned.
TMC nationwide common secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who’s West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and the de facto quantity two within the celebration, together with different celebration leaders visited Khowai amid tight safety preparations. Police mentioned the 14 TMC members have been arrested for violating Covid restrictions by travelling after 7 pm when an evening curfew comes into impact.
Singh mentioned that celebration leaders together with himself, Debangshu Bhattacharya, Tania Poddar, Sudip Raha and Jaya Dutta have been amongst these arrested. Raha and Dutta had sustained accidents when their car was allegedly attacked by BJP staff at Ambassa in Dhalai district on Saturday.
“After the assault, we have been returning to Agartala through National Highway 8 when the police stopped our autos at Khowai and took us into custody stating that there may very well be extra assaults on us by ‘miscreants’. “Indeed, BJP activists had gathered at a number of locations on NH 8 to assault us,” Singh mentioned. However, early within the morning, police mentioned the TMC members have been arrested for violating Covid restrictions.
Apart from Banerjee, West Bengal TMC common secretary Kunal Ghosh, the jap state’s Education Minister Bratya Basu, and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen additionally visited Khowai. Banerjee had earlier visited Tripura on August 2, when his convoy was additionally allegedly attacked by BJP staff.
After securing bail for the 14 TMC staff, Banerjee returned to Kolkata whereas the opposite senior leaders stayed again in Agartala, Singh mentioned. Injured celebration cadre, together with Debangshu Bhattacharya, Jaya Dutta and Sudip Raha, have been additionally introduced again to the town late on Sunday evening for therapy at a state-run metropolis hospital, TMC mentioned in a press release.
Debangshu Bhattacharya mentioned he’ll once more return to Tripura quickly. The West Bengal BJP welcomed the police motion in opposition to the TMC activists, saying the Biplab Deb authorities is taking applicable steps in opposition to “trouble-mongers”.
Senior BJP chief and former Tripura governor Tathagata Roy claimed the TMC has no ethical proper to talk on legislation and order within the northeastern state as over 140 BJP staff have been killed in West Bengal within the final three years. “Does the TMC need to export West Bengal’s political violence to Tripura and fish in troubled waters? Their recreation plan won’t ever succeed,” Roy informed reporters.
West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh echoed him, saying, “No one provides any significance to TMC in Tripura. “They don’t have any organisation within the northeastern state. The TMC management is itself staging incidents to impress the police however these is not going to give them any dividend.” However, senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim accused the BJP of “shedding crocodile tears” for democratic values in West Bengal and “finishing up barbaric assaults in Tripura”. Strongly criticising Saturday’s attack, TMC leaders had alleged that the incident proved there was “goonda raj” (lawlessness) in Tripura and the BJP has sensed its defeat within the 2023 meeting elections.
Denying the involvement of its activists within the assault, the BJP claimed that the TMC is a non-factor in Tripura, and the West Bengal’s ruling celebration is spreading the “virus of political violence” in the northeastern state, where “outsiders” are fomenting bother. Shortly after the incident, BJP and TMC supporters had confronted off and staged highway blockades 500 m aside on NH 8, forcing Chief Minister Biplab Deb to take a detour to return to Agartala after attending some programmes in Dharmanagar.
TMC staff led by Subal Bhowmik, a former vice-president of Tripura BJP who not too long ago switched sides, have been protesting the alleged ransacking of a TMC celebration workplace by saffron celebration staff within the Batarasi space of Dharmanagar on Friday evening. The West Bengal CPI(M) has additionally criticised the assault but in addition took a dig on the TMC alleging that it had saved mum when Left staff have been earlier attacked in BJP-ruled Tripura.
