BJP will defeat Mamata's regime in Bengal lock, stock and barrel: Nadda

The people of West Bengal have made up their mind to throw Mamata Banerjee's "tyrannical" government as there is no democracy left in the state, the BJP said on Thursday, hitting out at the TMC supremo over clashes between party workers and police during protests in Kolkata and Howrah.

The people of West Bengal have made up their mind to throw Mamata Banerjee's "tyrannical" government as there is no democracy left in the state, the BJP said on Thursday, hitting out at the TMC supremo over clashes between party workers and police during protests in Kolkata and Howrah. The clashes erupted at several places in the two West Bengal cities during a march called by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, to Nabanna, the state secretariat, when the protesters tore down barricades, officials said.

Leading the party's attack against the West Bengal chief minister, BJP president JP Nadda said he wants to clearly tell her again that the workers of the saffron party have resolved to fight against her "corrupt, violent and dictatorial" rule democratically to restore Bengal's lost glory and pride. "The people of Bengal and the BJP will defeat her regime lock, stock and barrel. The BJP's struggle to save the rich glory of Bengal will continue," Nadda said. In a series of tweets, he said the BJP stands with the people of Bengal, despite the brazen misuse of state power by Chief Minister Banerjee.

"Our brave workers of BJP's Yuva Morcha compelled her to close the Secretariat. This is an admission that she has lost public confidence," Nadda said. Equating the Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule with the previous Left Front regime in West Bengal, he said the only thing Banerjee's government has done better than its predecessor is increase brutality and violence against political opponents.

"Bengal has been burning under her administration, which patronises violent elements," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief said. Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "There is no democracy in West Bengal. Those who protest against the government are implicated in cases or harassed by police or their life is under threat." He condemned the "barbaric treatment" of BJP workers by the police in West Bengal.

"I would like to tell Mamata Banerjee and her party that if they think they can stop the BJP's progress in West Bengal by lathicharge and atrocities by the police, I assure them that they would fail in their attempts," Prasad said. He asserted that Banerjee and the TMC are resorting to violence as they are losing political ground in West Bengal and said there is feedback from the ground that the BJP will form the next government in the state.

"Is protest allowed in Mamata Banerjee's reign? People who raise their voice against her party are killed. The only reason behind this is the TMC losing its political ground in the state," Prasad said. He said 115 BJP workers have so far been killed in West Bengal.

Parts of Kolkata and adjoining Howrah resembled a battle zone on Thursday as BJP workers and supporters clashed with police, hurling stones and blocking roads with tyres set ablaze, to protest a string of killings of workers of the saffron party. Police personnel in riot gear burst teargas shells, beat up the agitators and used water cannons to break up the protests.