BJP supporters vandalise WB Cong headquarters in Kolkata over abusive words against PM

Kolkata, Aug 29 (PTI) Ripples of BJP-Congress clashes over the use of abusive language targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Rahul Gandhi's 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar were felt in Kolkata on Friday after a group of BJP supporters vandalised the grand old party's West Bengal state headquarters during a protest.

The agitators, allegedly led by local BJP leader Rakesh Singh, a Congress turncoat, ransacked festoons at the Bidhan Bhavan on CIT Road in central Kolkata, burnt party flags and smeared portraits of Rahul Gandhi with black paint.

The protesters even burnt tyres before the main gate of the party office and proclaimed that Congress would face "more such repercussions across India if it did not stop badmouthing BJP leaders".

The Congress party's state unit president Subhankar Sarkar demanded an explanation from his BJP counterpart Samik Bhattacharya for the "dastardly attack" and called the saffron party "uncivilised and barbaric".

Later in the day, Sarkar led a protest rally of the party from its headquarters and blocked the city's arterial Moulali Crossing, bringing rush hour traffic to its knees in and around Kolkata for about 30 minutes.

"This is a black day in West Bengal's politics," Sarkar said, adding, "Politics used to be fought on the streets on the basis of ideologies but never have party offices directly come under attack like this." Eyewitness accounts stated that a bunch of people carrying BJP flags gathered in front of the Pradesh Congress office in the morning and raised slogans against Rahul Gandhi, while setting fire to Congress party flags. The photographs of Gandhi in some festoons put up by the Congress outside the office were also blackened by the protesters.

In a video posted by Singh on his Facebook timeline in justification of the violence, the politician stated, "Let this serve as a warning to all Congress leaders and workers across the country that you will have to remain prepared for such repercussions if you continue to abuse our leaders." In the purported video clip, Singh is then seen smearing the portrait of Rahul Gandhi with black paint on a Congress hoarding put up outside the party office.

Protesters were then seen entering the office premises and destroying several other party banners and setting them on fire.

"This was only a minor trailer of what is going to happen across the country from here on. The Congress will sink beneath the ground if protests like these get repeated elsewhere," Singh later told PTI Videos.

Immediately after the incident, the state Congress chief wrote an open letter to Bhattacharya, seeking action against Singh.

"We do not know how far the anger of Congress workers will go if action is not taken against Rakesh Singh by the BJP and the police," Sarkar wrote in the letter.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, while addressing reporters at Baharampur in Murshidabad district, said the party will resist such attacks, and threatened to raid the BJP's state headquarters if corrective measures weren't taken by the saffron party.

"We will not tolerate such hooliganism at the Congress office. Has Rahul Gandhi badmouthed anyone? Unable to answer his criticisms and stand before them, the BJP is distorting his comments and indulging in violence.

"They are trying to provoke voters in Bihar without trying to know what Rahul Gandhi has actually said," Chowdhury said.

"I will ask Congress workers to tighten security around the Pradesh Congress office and continue protests in Kolkata till the BJP goon, responsible for this attack, is arrested. The Congress will not accept such attacks on its address which represents the party's politics, struggles and identity in Bengal. We, too, can raid BJP's office. Such one-sided attacks cannot be allowed to persist in the state," he added.

The Trinamool Congress, interestingly, while criticising the violence also took a potshot at the Congress for allegedly trying to pave way for the saffron camp in West Bengal in the past.

"I severely condemn the attack on Congress state head office by the BJP. The Congress leaders should realise that no TMC worker has ever dared to do such a thing in the last 14 years.

"This is the Tripura culture which the BJP is trying to implement here even while being in opposition and is the same party whose path the Congress tried to pave in 2021 by tying up with (ISF founder) Abbas Siddiqui to eat into our votes. Can you imagine what extent this party can go to if it came to power?" said TMC social media chief Debangshu Bhattacharya.

"In your bid to burn the houses of others, are you not igniting your own?" he asked.

The BJP has been criticising Gandhi, after a purported video showed an unidentified person using a Hindi expletive against Modi from a dais raised during the yatra in Darbhanga town, from where Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had left for Muzaffarpur on motorcycles on Wednesday.

PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the video. PTI AMR NN SMY ACD