Congress scuffles with cops in West Bengal
Three persons were killed in a clash between the Trinamul and the BJP
Kolkata: Days after the BJP’s central leaders were arrested in their bid to enter the violence-torn Makra village in Birbhum, a large number of Congress workers and local villagers got into a scuffle with the police when they tried to storm into the village defying prohibitory orders.
A Congress delegation led by the party’s state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was on Saturday not allowed to enter the trouble-torn Makra village in Birbhum district, which was made out of bounds for politicians by the Trinamul government.
Mr Chowdhury was heading a delegation of 12 MLAs and other leaders to visit Makra where three persons were killed in a clash between the Trinamul and the BJP on Monday amidst Section 144 CrPC imposed in the area.
The Prohibitory Orders was cited as the reason for not letting them in by the police who stopped the Co-ngress delegation at Chaumondalpur, about 3 km from Makra. The Congress leaders were then involved in a spat with the police and demanded that they be allowed to visit Makra.
A scuffle ensued as Congress workers tried to break police barricades.
TMC leader calls scribe ‘a small fry’
That the ruling Trinamul in West Bengal is on the backfoot over the Makra violence became evident when party all-India general secretary Mukul Roy lost his cool after a journalist sought his comment on the issue. “On this issue, your boss can ask me any question. You are too small a fry to ask this,” he said brusquely. Mr Roy had on Thursday held a meeting with party leaders in Birb-hum’s Bolpur to discuss ways to control damage that the party has suffered post-Makra mayhem.