Mounting pressure on Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today gheraoed offices of Superintendent of Police (SP) across all districts of the state over the deteriorating law and order. A series of clashes have been witnessed across several districts since the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results, with the latest being in North 24 Parganas’ Bhatpara.

On Sunday, BJP West Bengal president and Medinipore MP Dilip Ghosh lashed out at Banerjee-led West Bengal government for failing to check rampant violence in the state. Ghosh also accused Banerjee of provoking violence in the state and also sought a CBI probe into the alleged killings that took place in Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas.

The deceased were identified as Rambabu Shaw and Dharamveer Shaw. According to reports, no new violence-related incidents occured in Bhatpara and its adjoining areas since the clashes last Thursday. There has been heavy deployment of police personnel along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) to return normalcy in the region. A contingent of security forces led by Barrackpore Police Commissioner Manoj Verma has also conducted a route march. As part of preventive measures, Section 144 is still in force in Bhatpara and Jagaddal areas.

The protest is underway across all the districts in the state. Shyam Chandra Ghosh is leading the protest at Coochbehar while Dwipen Pramanick, Diptiman Sengupta, Manoj Tigga, Praveen Agarwal, Amitava Maitra, Amit Saha, Rathindranath Bose, Badsha Alam, Mafuja Khatun are leading the protests at Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad South and Murshidabad North respectively. In Barasat and Barrackpore, the protest is being headed by Ali Hossain and Umesh Rai. Sayantan Basu is holding the agitation at Basirhat while Pratap Banerjee is leading the gherao at Asansol.

Last week, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had ordered the transfer of 11 IPS officers following the clashes in Bhatpara where two people were dead and three were seriously injured. The Chief Minister had also directed the police officials to restore the prevailing situation to normal within 72 hours.

On Saturday, a three-member delegation team of BJP comprising former Union Minister SS Ahluwalia, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh and former IPS officer Vishnu Dayal Ram visited the area to take stock of the situation. The violence in the entire district has intensified since former TMC leader Arjun Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Singh won the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat defeating TMC candidate and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.

The violence at Bhatapara which falls under Barrackpore parliamentary constituency is turning out to be the latest political event in the state which witnessed a contest between BJP and the ruling TMC in the 17th Lok Sabha election. The BJP has managed to win 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats while TMC’s tally was reduced to 22.