A bulldozer sent to remove a Communist Party of India (Marxist) book stall in Kolkata’s Jadavpur area on Saturday had to retreat after party workers, residents and students gathered to oppose the move, The Telegraph reported.
The incident is the latest in a series of disputes over Left parties’ book stalls during Durga Puja in West Bengal.
Police and central forces were present as a team from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation arrived with the bulldozer to remove the stall, which had been set up four days earlier.
What an image for this #DurgaPuja in Kolkata! No one has seen this, #Bulldozer coming to destroy the bookstalls of the left at #Jadavpur.
— SS #Andolanjeevi #SaabYaadRakhaJayega (@sumonseng) October 17, 2026
The resistance was given by local people & all the @CpimlWestBengal @CPIM_WESTBENGAL & other democratic forces. Ultimately it had to go back. pic.twitter.com/4Z1oPV6pX7
“We have permission from the Kolkata Police, the corporation and for the electricity consumed at the stall,” Sudip Sengupta, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) state committee member, told The Telegraph. He alleged that officials had arrived to clear the site after the court went on vacation.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation criticised the action, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of targeting Left-run book stalls.
“The BJP-RSS regime fears books because it fears ideas,” the party said on...