Shah targets Didi for Bengal rioting

4- member BJP team to probe clashes

The BJP is sending a fourmember team to visit violence-hit Raniganj Asansol towns in Burdwan West where clashes broke out during the Ramnavami festival celebrations.

Led by the BJP’s national vice- president Om Mathur, the team also has Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly, former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain and Palamau MP, V. D. Ram. They will take stock of the ground situation and submit a report to BJP president Amit Shah, who had described the situation as “painful and unfortunate”.

Asked about the BJP delegation’s schedule, state BJP spokesperson Sayantan Basu said, “They will reach Kolkata on Saturday night. They will visit the area on Sunday.”

Although Raniganj and Asansol are limping back to normalcy, with prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code being regulated to allow people to lead their routine lives, it is not clear whether the BJP delegation would be allowed by the district administration to visit the trouble- hit areas.

The BJP’s move to send a team from Delhi comes close on the heels of the Mamata Banerjee government barring Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on March 27 to visit 47- yearold IPS officer Arindram Dutta Chowdhury, who was then admitted to Mission Hospital in Durgapur with injuries on his right hand.

Raj Bhavan had stated

that Mr Tripathi planned the visit “to acquaint himself about the situation ( sic).”

Major portion of the right wrist of the deputy commissioner of police ( headquarters) of the Asansol Durgapur police commissionerate was blown off after being hit by a bomb during the clash on March 26. Mr Chowdhury has been shifted to Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore for reconstructive surgery.