The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, claimed on Monday that its office in Kolkata had been attacked and vandalised by ‘goons’ from the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
This comes a day after the West Bengal Assembly election results were announced and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party TMC was re-elected in the state.
The student organization alleged that around 20 people barged into their office and attacked their karyakartas (workers) including their national joint organizing secretary Shriniwas, zonal organising secretary Govinda Nayak and about eight others. They said that “idols of Hindu deities and portraits of thought leaders” like Syama Prasad Mukherjee were vandalised.
Today, around 15-20 TMC goons of Mamata Banerjee attacked and vandalised ABVP West Bengal’s Kolkata office, engaged in altercation with the activists and assaulted them.
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) May 3, 2021
In their official statement on the incident, the ABVP said that the attackers threatened them with “similar assaults in the times to come”.
The ABVP claimed that more than 150 TMC workers on bikes had been circling around their office on Sunday. They, thus, suggested that the attack was “pre-planned”.
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“This is only a glimpse of what the next five years hold for people who oppose Mamata Banerjee and her politics,” the organisation stated.
Taking to Twitter, ABVP stated, “Since ABVP calls out the politics of hate by Mamata Banerjee and her minions, TMC goons resorted to violence After coming back to power, this is how TMC goons plan to curb dissent.”
National General Secretary of ABVP @nidhitripathi92 speaks about attack on @ABVPBanga office in Kolkata by Mamata Banerjee’s TMC goons pic.twitter.com/fOicZqhSTe
— ABVP (@ABVPVoice) May 3, 2021
The West Bengal wing of the opposition BJP has claimed that six of its workers have been killed across the state since Sunday. The party alleged that a few hundred of their offices and houses were ransacked as the counting of votes progressed on May 2.
It was even claimed that TMC workers set fire to the BJP’s office in Arambagh. Sources in the TMC, however, denied the allegation.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/kolkata/story/abvp-tmc-goons-attack-kolkata-office-election-results-1798533-2021-05-04
