AGARTALA:
A face-off took place between workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, on August 1, which led to the civil administration of the Bishalgarh sub-division under Sepahijala district imposing section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) at Charilam area.
According to police sources, the situation turned grim after the Congress, led by MLA Sudip Roy Barman, former MLA Asish Kumar Saha, and Pradesh Congress chief Birajit Sinha, opened a party office that had been shut after the BJP came to power, to conduct a joining programme.
As soon as the Congress leaders reached the venue, they witnessed massive protests from BJP supporters.
Speaking on the issue, Roy Barman said the party had scheduled the joining programme before hand, and when they reached the spot, they found BJP supporters holding flags and blocking the streets in a bid to create chaos and disrupt their programme.
“Before the start of the programme, the police had also objected and told us not to hold any gathering, citing Covid-19 protocols. After we requested, we were given fifteen minutes time and the whole joining event was completed within 13 minutes,” Roy Barman said.
“I want to ask one question to the BJP supporters. Don’t they have any respect for the democracy of the country? People who are involved with drug smuggling and all other anti-social works are controlling the saffron party. Certainly, the political culture of the party has degraded to a certain level,” he added.
Due to prompt police action, no direct scuffle took place between the BJP and Congress workers, and on the section 144 being imposed, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Bishalgarh, Binay Bhusan Das said, “The prohibitory orders will remain in force for a couple of hours and once the situation stumbles back to normalcy, the orders will be withdrawn.”
As per available information, a total of 603 people from different political parties, mainly BJP joined the Congress party in the low-key event.