CPM, Congress offices vandalised in Rajarhat; both blame BJP, MLA denies charge

CPM and Congress offices were vandalised in Rajarhat’s Bishnupur-II gram panchayat area, North 24-Parganas, on Wednesday night, with both parties blaming the ruling BJP.

In Basina-Mondalpara, a CPM party office under the Rajarhat-New Town Assembly constituency was ransacked by suspected BJP supporters. “The BJP is carrying forward the Trinamool Congress legacy,” local CPM leader Saptarshi Deb claimed, accusing the ruling party’s supporters of the latest attack.

A Congress office at Sibtala was also vandalised. CCTV footage reportedly showed around a dozen men arriving on bikes, breaking the lock, entering the office premises and ransacking the office, damaging furniture.

Congress leader Abdul Mohit said the party lodged a police complaint and submitted the CCTV footage.

Opposition leaders claimed intimidation from the ruling BJP and questioned the “absence of effective policing” to prevent or control
such attacks.

Bengal Congress spokesperson Suman Roy Chaudhuri termed attacks on the Opposition as “signs of an autocratic regime”. Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: “Continued attacks on Opposition party offices and other establishments reflect the unmistakable signs of an autocratic regime. The BJP’s actions and anti-democratic conduct in Bengal are undermining the allegations levelled by (chief minister) Suvendu Adhikari against the previous government.”

Rajarhat-New Town BJP MLA Piyush Kanodia rejected the charges.

“Both the CPM and the Congress are speaking in the same way. Their allegations are baseless. Let the police find out the reality,”
Kanodia said.

Dismissing the two parties as political non-entities in Bengal, he alleged they were suffering from an identity crisis and trying to get public and media attention.

“If they can show any evidence of attacks by the BJP, I will quit politics,” he said. “Marxism has vanished from Bengal. The ideology of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Swami Vivekananda will thrive in the state.”