BJP holds ‘Save Bengal’ campaign in Mumbai, Delhi after Basirhat riots

Targeting the Bengali community outside Bengal may have little bearing on the party’s fate in West Bengal, but there were hundreds from the community alongside few local people staged a “Mamata Hatao, Bangaal Bachao” protest just outside the Churchgate Railway Station on Saturday evening.

The recent incidents in Baduria and Basirhat areas have triggered this public shows by Bengalis living in the western metropolis.

However, not a single BJP flag was witnessed at the venue. The posters and banners with slogans were put up as a mark of peaceful protest against the violence that took place n districts of West Bengal.

One of the protesters Soumen Mukherji , who is associated with the party, said that communal violence in West Bengal has really given them an issue ahead of the next year’s Panchayat Polls.

“Apart from bad governance and corruption, Mamata Banerjee should be solely blamed for the communal violence in Bengal…This will surely be the highlight going into the Panchayat election next year,” Mukherji said.

The protesters demanded that Banerjee should behave like a secular state head and not fuel these religious fights.

“What happened in Bengal in the last few days is shocking. Minority appeasement has reached such a level that you get your own people killed…It should not be tolerated and that is why we are here to protest,” another Bengali businessman Radhanath Modak said.

The programme which was scheduled to start at 4:30 pm was delayed almost by an hour as the protestors hailing from different parts of greater Mumbai were still to reach. The gathering could have been more had the organisers not changed the venue with few hours to the start.

(Reporting by Sanjib Guha)