Violence broke out in several places in West Bengal after Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari was arrested while leading a rally from Santragachi in Howrah to Nabanna, where the state secretariat is located.
There were violent protests in Adhikari’s constituency Nandigram, with several houses set on fire and the Trinamool Congress office being vandalised.
Adhikari was taken in a prison van at the Police Training School near Alipore in Kolkata. BJP MP Locket Chatterjee and former state party president Rahul Sinha too were picked up along with him.
After Adhikari's arrest, Bisnupur MP Saumitra Khan took charge of the rally, along with MLA and former cricketer Ashok Dinda. Police opened water cannon at them when they reached Nabanna, and had to resort to lathicharge and firing tear gas after BJP workers pelted stones at them.
Another rally led by state president Sukanta Majumder also approached Nabanna from Howrah maidan. BJP MP and party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh also led a rally from the party office in central Kolkata to Nabanna.
The rallies were taken out in protest against alleged corruption by the Mamata Banerjee government in the state.
Thousands of BJP workers came from different parts of the state. Several were arrested from trains last night.
CM Banerjee left for Midnapore yesterday. She had ordered a crackdown on the BJP rallies, government sources said. Kolkata police commissioner Vineet Goel and the Howrah police commissioner Pravin Tripathy have been given the charge to handle the rally.
Howrah bridge resembled a battleground, with thousands of BJP workers pelting stones at the police and the latter responding with tear gas and water cannons. Hundreds of BJP workers were, reportedly, injured. Many have been arrested.
Train services in West Bengal were cancelled, while public transport, including metro rail services, have been stopped.
