Thousands of BJP Workers Reportedly Detained in West Bengal After Clashes With Police

© AFP 2023 / DIBYANGSHU SARKARPolice use a water cannon to disperse Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists marching towards the state secretariat during a protest against West Bengal's government in Kolkata on September 13, 2022.
Police use a water cannon to disperse Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists marching towards the state secretariat during a protest against West Bengal's government in Kolkata on September 13, 2022.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 13.09.2022
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Earlier this week, West Bengal's opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced an unauthorized march towards the state assembly.
West Bengal Police detained thousands of BJP members in several districts on Tuesday after they tried to reach the capital Kolkata to hold a march against State Chief Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, reported Indian Express.
The detained members included opposition leaders Suvendu Adhikari, Locket Chatterjee, Taapshi Mondol and Dipankar Gharami.
Meanwhile, BJP members in Kolkata and neighboring Howrah arrived at the protest site to march towards state secretariat building over alleged corruption by the ruling TMC government.
However, protesters were stopped by police, which used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd near Kolkata’s Howrah Bridge. Demonstrators engaged in scuffles with the police in Kolkata’s Lalbazar and MG Road areas, and a police vehicle was set on fire. In Santragachi, protesters pelted police with stones as they chased away the demonstrators.
Police have imposed restrictions and barricaded the railway stations to prevent more protesters from reaching Kolkata.
The BJP has alleged that police selectively picked their workers from trains and detained them. Meanwhile, BJP politician Adhikari accused the TMC convener and State Chief Banerjee of "turning West Bengal into North Korea."
"Banerjee does not have the support of her people, so she is enforcing dictatorship, similar to North Korea, in Bengal. The police will have to pay for what it is doing. The BJP is coming," Adhikari said.
Police told the Indian Express daily that permission for the march was denied, and that they'd imposed a section 144 ban on large gatherings around the secretariat building.
TMC's regional general secretary, Kunal Ghosh, explained that, "BJP doesn't have a strategy. They do not have workers. The crowd you see is of police and media."
This is believed to be the BJP's largest protest in the state since it lost the election in May 2021.
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