After HQ vandalism, TMC delegation reaches Agartala, stages sit-in protest at airport over ‘vehicle snub’

The delegation comprising Ghosh, Pratima Mondal, Saayoni Ghosh, Birbaha Hansda, Kunal Ghosh, Sudip Raha and Sushmita Dev landed at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport at Agartala around 11 am.

Political violence, non-cooperation and attempts at silencing Opposition voices have long been a part of saffron politics in Tripura, Ghosh said. “I saw the same thing a couple of years ago when I last visited Tripura. We faced violent assaults then; this time, our party office was vandalised. After our team landed here, we found that three out of four vehicles that we were supposed to board were removed. How are all of us supposed to go in a single vehicle?” he added.

“This is the difference between Bengal and Tripura,” Ghosh said. “If any BJP leader from Tripura goes to West Bengal, they can move around the state freely. But there is vandalism (on a TMC party office) here (in Tripura), and when we are visiting, our vehicles (drivers) are threatened to leave. Auto rickshaws want to take us, but are not being allowed to. So, we will walk from here, and the police will be responsible for any violence that may happen,” the former MP added.

Incidentally, former Tripura chief minister and incumbent Lok Sabha MP Biplab Kumar Deb, who was appointed as the BJP’s election in-charge for West Bengal last month, is currently touring the state.

While there has been no official response from the BJP regarding the visit, Tripura BJP vice-president Ashok Sinha took to social media to make veiled jibes at the TMC leaders over their allegation of being denied transportation from the airport. “Just because of one so-called VIP near the departure area in the airport, all vehicles were removed. We don’t exist if (we are) not a VIP,” he wrote.

The TMC has earlier contested Assembly and municipal elections in Tripura.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev termed the attack “shocking” and said it took the Trinamool Congress two years to set up a party office at Agartala when she was in charge of the party before the 2023 Tripura Assembly polls.

The TMC delegation is hoping to meet Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu and Tripura Director General of Police Anurag Dhyankar during their visit to apprise them of the situation and know their take on it, Dev said.

TMC MP Pratima Mandal took potshots at the BJP and said saffron leaders often visit Bengal and raise allegations of political violence there, but a delegation of TMC MPs and legislators visiting Tripura were finding it hard to board vehicles.

The Trinamool leaders later launched a sit-in demonstration at the airport in protest, alleging a deliberate attempt to deny them transportation to their party office.

On social media, the TMC stated, “The Trinamool Congress was formed fighting against autocracy, and when democracy was endangered, we continued that fight. Regardless of terrorism, no matter how much terrorism is sponsored by the state government, the fire of our determination cannot be extinguished.”

Before leaving for Tripura, Ghosh told reporters, “Earlier, our experience in Tripura was not good. Me, Sayoni — all were there — goons wearing helmets entered the police station to snatch us from police custody. Police kept us in a dark room so that miscreants couldn’t locate us. The police were also helpless. This is basically the law and order situation of Tripura.”

What came before the attack

A group of BJP supporters removed TMC flags, banners and other campaign material and left them in front of the office on Tuesday, as part of an alleged “token protest” against the assault on BJP MP Khagen Murmu and party MLA Shankar Ghosh in Jalpaiguri a day earlier. Murmu and Shankar Ghosh were visiting flood-affected people and distributing relief materials when they were allegedly assaulted.

After the attack, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee posted on X, “Unable to defeat TMC at the ballot box in Bengal, BJP has unleashed its full machinery to provoke violence in states where they hold power. Their karyakartas attacked and ransacked our party office in Tripura, under the watchful eyes of the police, laying bare their vindictive mindset.”

BJP Tripura state spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya hit back, saying the vandalism was its protest against the TMC’s alleged attacks on Murmu and Shankar Ghosh.

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