TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee visits Tripura after attack on party workers

Agartala: The All India Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday arrived in Tripura to stand by his party workers who were allegedly attacked by the BJP supporters on Saturday.

Banerjee arrived at Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) airport in Agartala and told reporters that it seems one would need to take a Visa from the chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb to enter Tripura.

“They are the people who give big speeches on democracy. Now people can see that the opposition is not allowed to move out, hold programmes and even on entering Tripura the police are being directed to arrest the TMC supporters,” Banerjee said.

“Within 7 days I have come back to Tripura. Let them use all the power against us. Democracy will prevail in Tripura. Tripura is reflecting the Gujarat model government here which is rulers’ law instead of rule of law,” Banerjee added.

Banerjee accused the government of arresting TMC workers who faced attack instead of BJP supporters. “We will fight till the last drop of our blood and would not leave an inch of land,” he added.

Earlier on Saturday, the vehicle of the TMC leaders came under attack by miscreants near the Nailahabari area while they were en-route to attend a party programme in Dharmanagar.

Stones were allegedly pelted by the supporters of BJP in which two TMC leaders sustained injuries. Sudip Raha received head injuries and Jaya Dutta minor injuries, while Dibangshu Bhattacharya had a narrow escape.

Soon after, the supporters of the TMC organised a sit-in a road blockade near Ambassa Forest Office against the attack, after which the BJP supporters started pelting stones at them which further escalated the situation. The police fired tear gas to disperse the mob from the spot.

However, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya refuted the allegation and said that the TMC is exporting the violence from West Bengal to Tripura.

“The BJP does not believe in violence and political vendetta. They have our BJP workers in Bengal and are not trying to create a panic here in Tripura to divert the attention of the people,” Bhattacharya said.