BJP Team Reaches Riot-Hit Asansol Defying Prohibitory Orders

A delegation comprising four leaders of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) reached the violence-hit areas of Asansol on Sunday (1 April) in spite of the prohibitory orders in place by the Mamata Banerjee government.

According a Telegraph report, the committee included Rajya Sabha member and BJP national vice-president Om Prakash Mathur, BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, Palamu Member of Parliament (MP) Vishnu Dayal Ram and Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly.

Hussain, one of the delegation members, blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress government for failing to control the situation in the Asansol-Raniganj belt of the West Burdwan district. "We will report to Amitji. The state government has failed to maintain law and order in the area," said Hussain.

Mathur meanwhile blamed the ruling party, but also the “coal and drug mafias”. In a press conference, he said “Ram Navami had been celebrated across Bengal but violence spread only in Asansol and Raniganj because of the coal and drug mafias. They, along with the ruling party, had planned disturbances.”

West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, meanwhile, accused the BJP of meeting “only one community”. "They want the disturbance to prevail and that's why they sent a team, which met only one community,” said the Trinamool secretary-general.

The visit by the BJP delegation comes in the backdrop of communal violence in Asansol and Raniganj over Ram Navami celebrations this year. BJP national president Amit Shah had formed the four-member committee to take a stock of the situation in the violence affected areas.