Kolkata, Aug 9: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had orchestrated the recent attacks on her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party workers, and asserted that she won't be cowed down by such acts.
Denying the charge as "baseless", the West Bengal BJP said that going by Banerjee's logic, she should be blamed for post-poll violence and murders of saffron party workers in the state. Her allegation comes days after Abhishek Banerjee and TMC activists were attacked in separate incidents in Tripura, where the party hopes to expand its base ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.
"The BJP is running an anarchic government in Tripura, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and wherever they are in power. We condemn the attacks on Abhishek and our party activists in Tripura," she said after meeting injured TMC workers at state-run SSKM hospital here.
"Such attacks would not have been possible without the Union home minister's active support. He is behind these attacks which were carried out in front of Tripura Police as it remained mute spectators. The Tripura chief minister doesn't have the audacity to order such attacks," she said.
Two TMC leaders were injured in an attack allegedly by BJP workers at Ambassa in Tripura's Dhalai district on Saturday. Referring to the attack, Banerjee said, "The car carrying our youth leaders Debangshu Bhattacharya, Jaya Dutta and Sudip Raha was pelted with stones. The windshield of the vehicle was smashed and even shots were fired, everything in front of the police."
"Raha has sustained a serious head injury, while Dutta's face has swollen from shrapnel injuries. Still, they were denied medical treatment for 36 hours. They were not even given water to drink. The barbaric regime in Tripura has treated them inhumanly," she said. The TMC chief alleged that at the behest of the Centre, the BJP government in Tripura had hatched plans to prevent TMC leaders from booking flight tickets.
"There were clear instructions to not allow TMC leaders to book flight tickets, or hire aircraft and helicopters. Five seats were booked close to Abhishek's seat in his flight for planting goons. His life is in danger.
"Abhishek's convoy was attacked on August 2 during his visit to Tripura. Had his car not been bullet-proof, his skull would have been fractured. Who knows what would have happened after that?" Banerjee said.
She alleged that the BJP had earlier prevented TMC delegations from being beside NRC-affected people in Assam, and from meeting the rape victim's family in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras.
"BJP leaders talk about democracy during their visits to West Bengal but reveal their true colours in the states they rule," she said.
Banerjee asserted that the people of West Bengal and Tripura have strong ties and the BJP cannot prevent the TMC from reaching out to the people of the northeastern state. The Chief Minister, who interacted with the two injured TMC leaders and the doctors attending to them, called upon the youth and the students to protest the attack.
Responding to Banerjee's charge, state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said, "The allegations against the Union home minister are baseless. Going by her logic, she should be held responsible for the post-poll violence and murders of BJP workers in West Bengal. Our CM should be the last person to talk about political violence."
"The BJP doesn't lack political acumen that it would attack a non-entity like TMC to give it importance in Tripura politics," BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.
