The BJP unit in West Bengal has called a 12-hour bandh in North Bengal on Tuesday over the death of a party worker today during its protest against the West Bengal government in Siliguri. The Bengal police fired teargas shells and used water cannons to quell the protest called by the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) against the Mamata Banerjee government during which a BJP worker died. Several protesters and police personnel were injured in clashes.
The BJP alleged that a party worker identified as Ullen Ray was "beaten to death" by the police during a baton charge. However, police claimed there was no lathicharge and the cause of death of the protester was being ascertained.
The BJP condemned the police action and demanded imposition of president's rule in West Bengal in view of "breakdown of law and order".
BJP workers were seen fighting pitched battles with police after they were stopped from moving past barricades at two points near branch secretariat 'Uttarkanya' during the rally called to protest the TMC "misrule".
The BJYM, the youth with of the BJP, led by its chief and Lok Sabha member Tejaswi Surya, took out two protest marches claiming the state government had not fulfilled the promises made to the people of north Bengal and that the benefits of welfare schemes had failed to reach the common man.
Police used water cannons and burst tear gas shells to stop the protesters from marching to the secretariat and were pelted with stones.
Agitators also set fire to some bamboo barricades.
State BJP Dilip Ghosh, who led a rally to Fulbari Bazar, one of the two approach points to the secretariat building, said the government was "using coercion" as it was scared of the saffron party's rise in West Bengal.
A second rally, led by the party's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJYM president Tejaswi Surya, broke the first two layers of the police cordon near Tinbatti more, about 1 km from Uttarkanya, but could not get past the third. Police sprayed the protesters with coloured water.
Tejasvi Surya took to Twitter to launch a scathing attack on the West Bengal administration, blaming "Mamata's police" for the alleged death of the BJP worker.
"I am informed by our local karyakartas that Sri Ulen Roy, a senior BJP karyakarta, has succumbed to splinter injuries caused by the country bombs that Mamata’s police threw. This is murder. Nothing less. We are very angry. We will never forgive you Mamata Di. Om Shanti!" tweeted Tejasvi Surya from his official handle on Twitter.
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