Just days after the Left Front’s march to Nabanna, the West Bengal state secretariat, on May 22, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not leave any stone unturned to make its ‘Lalbazar Chalo’ on Thursday a bigger success.
Every district leadership have been advised to bring in as many supporters as they can. Elaborate preparations have been made to accommodate party workers who would arrive on Wednesday night from far-flung areas. A temporary shed good enough for a few hundred people have been put up.
“While the Left Front’s march to Nabanna didn’t have any specific reason and we believe it was staged by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide the Left with some oxygen to set off the BJP’s growing popularity here, ours have reasons more than one. We would do a Lalbazar Gherao because we had demanded the arrest of Tipu Sultan Masjid Imam Syed Nurur Rahman Barkati which was not done. Again we had demanded a stop of police atrocities on BJP workers and to restore the democratic setup of the state which the police had failed to meet, miserably,” said BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu.
He added that they intended to make the rally peaceful and that police were not their enemies but if police replied with hostility they would face a similar reaction and after that if situation went out of control the police would have to shoulder the responsibility.
“The rally would begin at about 1 pm. Senior leaders such as Kailash Vijayvargiya and Suresh Pujari will be present along with the state leadership. We have also heard that TMC workers, in connivance with the police have decided that vehicles carrying our workers would be stopped on the road to prevent them from joining the protest rally,” Basu added.
Party insiders said that there has been strict instruction not to carry stones. “We will carry rotten eggs and rotten fruits like mangoes and water melons. At least 20 crates of eggs have been purchased for the purpose,” said a party source. He also said that other than the three specified routes, BJP workers will also approach Lalbazar from different undisclosed routes. “The party would carry out video recording just like the police and if any party member is seen pelting stones at the cops internal action would be taken against him and if any outsider is seen doing it, then a case would be filed against him,” he said.
Lalbazar sources said that there had been strict instruction from Commissioner of Kolkata Police Rajiv Kumar that there should not be any repetition of beating up journalists as it had happened on May 22 during the Left rally.
