BJP Union Minister Locked up by Party Workers in Bengal for Being 'Dictatorial', 'Incompetent'
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Union minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar was locked into the Bharatiya Janata Party office in West Bengal's Bankura for about two hours on Tuesday (September 12), after a fight erupted between two factions within the party.
Sarkar, the Bankura MP, had gone to the district to hold a meeting on Tuesday morning.
“There was a fight between two groups of the BJP inside the party office in Bankura town. The Union minister was also there. He was locked up for more than an hour or so. We got a distress call and rushed to the spot. The crowd was dispersed, and the minister was brought out safely,” a police officer told Hindustan Times.
According to NDTV, some members of the party accused Sarkar of being "dictatorial" in running the district unit. One of those protesting, Mohit Sharma, said they were "protesting to save the party". "This time, the BJP did not get any seat in Bankura Municipality because of his [Sarkar's] incompetence. BJP won two wards in the previous election. They could not field candidates in many seats in panchayat. It is a shame," Sharma said, according to NDTV.
BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the incident was "unfortunate" and action would be taken against those involved.
The Trinamool Congress responded to the incident by saying that the Bengal BJP "is crumbling as infighting is reaching its peak".
Meanwhile, Malda Uttar MP Khagen Murmu too faced protests at the Mahanandtola gram panchayat under Ratua assembly seat of Malda district, The Hindu reported, though those protesting against him were not BJP workers. Villagers who have been displaced due to erosion along the Ganga in the area were demanding rehabilitation and accused the Union government of not acting to help them.
Ratua Trinamool Congress MLA Samar Mukherjee said that the Union government hadn't kept its promises. “The erosion occurs in Jharkhand, Bihar, and large parts of West Bengal. When the Farakka Barrage was constructed, it was entrusted with the responsibility of preventing river erosion both upstream and downstream, but the Central government institution hasn’t kept its commitment,” Mukherjee alleged.
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