Updated at 11.40 pm
KOLKATA: Violence rocked West Bengal Assembly as Trinamool Congress (TMC) members went on a rampage in the lobby protesting against the arrest of party supremo Mamta Banejee in Hooghly district on Thursday.
A CPI (M) MLA was seriously injured while two security personnel and many media photographers received injuries in the unprecedented bedlam. The incident took place after Banerjee, who was arrested by police earlier in the day for violating prohibitory orders near Singur, barged inside the Assembly premises. Speaker H A Halim had to adjourn the House, which was discussing a no-confidence motion against the state government, moved jointly by the TMC and the Congress.
The TMC supremo started shouting at the top of her voice alleging that the administration had acted ‘unconstitutionally’ by preventing her from entering Singur where the Tata motors proposed to set up a small car factory. She was intercepted at Hooghly and sent back.
Instigated by the leader’s vociferous protest, party members swung into fury breaking chairs, tables, destroying the Assembly files, furniture and so on.
The police remained a mute spectator as the law prohibits the arrest of an MLA within the Assembly. Although, Mamta, not an MLA, could be arrested, the police refrained from doing so fearing complex political ramifications.
In the forefront of the violence were members of the Trinamool 'halla brigade' namely, Ashok Deb, Jyotipriya Mallick, Shonali Guha and Subrata Bakshi among others. TMC members torched buses in B B Ganguly Street, a bus in Brabourne Road in central Kolkata and created road blockades in various parts of the city. CM Buddhadeb Bhataacharjee condemned the incident. The TMC has called for a 12-hour Bengal bandh on Friday.
