Kolkata: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly, was detained on Tuesday while he, along with other BJP leaders, were trying to reach Kolkata for Nabanna Abhiyan (march to secretariat).
Along with Adhikari, BJP State General Secretary Locket Chatterjee and BJP leader Rahul Sinha were detained as Bengal BJP workers clashed with police during a protest march against the TMC government.
The leaders were stopped in front of the police training school at the approach to the Second Hooghly Bridge near the secretariat, according to news agency PTI.
The detained leaders will be taken to the Kolkata Police headquarters, at Lal Bazar.
#WATCH | West Bengal: Police detain BJP leaders including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha and MP Locket Chatterjee from Hastings in Kolkata ahead of BJP's Nabanna Chalo march
Leaders taken to Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar pic.twitter.com/aPgJm7q6Dn
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2022
This campaign, Nabanna Abhiyan, under which BJP workers are trying to reach Kolkata), is called out to be one of the party’s biggest campaigns since its 2021 poll defeat.
Reports suggest that thousands of BJP workers have been arrested or detained in several districts.
“Mamata Police is on a war footing, trying to crush a democratic political event. The barricade of steel raised at Santragachi symbolizes her anxiety & timidity. Remember this @MamataOfficial, no wall can stand up to the ‘wave of democracy’, it would be breached sooner than later,” the former Trinamool leader Adhikari said ahead of the march.
Blaming the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government for the police crackdown on BJP leader, Adhikari said ahead of the march: “CM Mamata doesn’t have the support of her people and so she is enforcing dictatorship, similar to North Korea in Bengal…Police will have to pay for what it’s been doing since y’day, BJP is coming.”
#WATCH | WB: "CM Mamata doesn't have the support of her people & so she is enforcing dictatorship, similar to North Korea in Bengal… Police will have to pay for what it's been doing since y'day, BJP is coming," says LoP Suvendu Adhikari ahead of BJP's Nabanna Chalo march pic.twitter.com/Qj6v0041zQ
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2022
Reports suggest that BJP hired several trains – three from north Bengal and four from south Bengal – to bring its party members and supporters from different parts of the state to the metropolis and Howrah for the march.
