General
KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Khagen Murmu sustained injuries when he was assaulted and stones were thrown at his car during a visit to the flood-affected Nagrakata community block in Jalpaiguri district.
The MP and his party blamed members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the attack.
“Trinamool Congress workers assaulted us. They were shouting slogans at us. They did not want us to visit the flood-affected areas before chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Some local police personnel, who were at the spot, did not come to our rescue,” BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh told reporters.
In a video shared on social media by Siliguri town MLA Ghosh, the Malda North MP is seen sitting in a vehicle, wiping blood off his face. Murmu was taken to a clinic in Chalsa and later shifted to a private hospital in Siliguri.
“We were going to some villages that were hit by the floods on Sunday. Our intention was to assess the damage and submit a report to the Centre so that relief materials could be distributed. The villagers started assaulting us. They smashed all the windows of the car with stones and sticks. I had a narrow escape,” Ghosh said.
The incident was reported by several television channels that were covering the MP’s visit to the area. In these reports, the central paramilitary force personnel who accompanied Murmu could be seen being pushed around by the villagers.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya, who was in another part of the Nagrakata community block when the incident took place, criticised the Mamata Banerjee government for the attack.
“In this state, it is not the rule of law but the rule of miscreants that prevails,” he said in a social media post in Bengali. “Even after the massive destruction in North Bengal yesterday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was busy with a carnival. And today, her party’s miscreants are wreaking havoc in this manner,” the post said.
Mahua Gope, president of the TMC’s Jalpaiguri district unit, rejected the allegations linking the party to the incident. “The local people got angry on seeing the BJP leaders because they went there to play politics. The incident was a fallout of mass outrage against BJP,” Gope said.
Reserved for scheduled tribes, the Nagrakata assembly seat was won by BJP in 2021 but Puna Bhengra, its MLA, did not even visit the flood affected areas in two days, Gope alleged.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was on her way to north Bengal on a two-day visit to see the rescue and rehabilitation works when the incident took place. Banerjee has announced an ex-gratia amount of ₹5 lakh for the family of the people who died due to the heavy rainfall over the weekend and promised to give a Special Homeguard’s job to a kin in each such family as a special gesture.
BJP spokesperson said the incident was a reflection of ‘jungle raj’ in West Bengal. “Today, a tribal leader and 2-time MP was attacked in an inhuman manner; this is cruelty and barbarism. This should not be tolerated,” he said.
At least 23 people, including three children, were killed and several others injured in the Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts on Sunday following heavy rainfall that triggered floods and massive landslides at multiple places in north Bengal and neighbouring Sikkim and Bhutan.
Later in the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack in a post on X.
“The manner in which our Party colleagues, including a sitting MP and MLA, were attacked in West Bengal for serving the people affected by floods and landslides is outright appalling. It highlights the insensitivity of the TMC as well as the absolutely pathetic law and order situation in the state,” the PM wrote.
“I wish the West Bengal government and TMC were more focussed on helping people rather than indulging in violence in such a challenging situation. I call upon BJP karyakartas to continue working among the people and assist the ongoing rescue operations,” he added.
Modi made the comments hours after Mamata Banerjee indirectly referred to the incident while touring the flood affected areas and asked people not to indulge in violence.
“I ask everybody not to fall for any provocation. There should not be any sort of violence anywhere. Let people visit the places they want to,” Banerjee said.
After this the TMC put out a post on X asserting that it “does not support or condone violence in any form.”