KOLKATA: Dramatic visuals purportedly from the Trinamool Congress’ Camac Street office in Kolkata showed several masked and helmeted men walking out of the premises carrying TV screens, a printer and other items after an alleged early-morning attack on Thursday.The footage also showed a room littered with broken objects, with furniture and electronic equipment apparently damaged.TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that BJP workers, armed with weapons, stormed the party office at around 4.30am, assaulted people inside, snatched their phones, smashed furniture and ransacked the premises.Calling it a “disgraceful assault on the rule of law”, Banerjee alleged that Kolkata Police failed to respond for nearly two hours despite repeated calls and emails from party workers and lawyers.“We demand the immediate arrest of every person involved in this attack,” Banerjee said, while also seeking an investigation into who allegedly planned, organised and directed the violence and accountability for the alleged police inaction.Following the incident, the Trinamool Congress wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and West Bengal Governor RN Ravi seeking urgent appointments with party delegations to discuss what it described as the “disturbing and systematic misuse” of the police and the deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state.Speaking to reporters, TMC MP Derek O’Brien said the letters were sent on Thursday morning and sought separate meetings with the President in Delhi and the West Bengal Governor in Kolkata.“In this situation, we’ve written to the President of India, and the Trinamool Congress has written to the Governor of West Bengal — President and the Governor — seeking an urgent appointment of a Trinamool Congress delegation to discuss the disturbing situation in Bengal,” O’Brien said.The TMC alleged that the incident at the Camac Street office was part of a wider deterioration in law and order and demanded action against those responsible.The BJP, however, rejected the allegations of political vendetta.Responding to Abhishek Banerjee’s posts, West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the BJP would not have spared defeated TMC leaders if it were pursuing vendetta politics.“If the BJP were engaging in vendetta politics, then after the election results were declared, none of the defeated Trinamool Congress MLAs, ministers and MPs would have remained unscathed,” Bhattacharya said.He also alleged that internal differences within the TMC were responsible for incidents of violence and vandalism.“Trinamool members are throwing eggs at each other and vandalising each other’s offices. Those who faced injustice at the hands of Abhishek Banerjee, when he was a top party leader, understand the situation,” he said.The incident comes amid an ongoing controversy over Banerjee’s Camac Street office. Days earlier, West Bengal Police registered an FIR against Banerjee, Derek O’Brien and others in connection with alleged obstruction and assault of police personnel during the removal of an allegedly unauthorised hoarding at the address.
