Kolkata Police dismantle BJP stage ahead of 'Save Democracy' campaign

Kolkata: Two persons have been arrested for erecting a makeshift podium in front of a state government office in West Bengal's South 24-Parganas district.

The Thursday night incident took place in the Canning area when the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers were busy setting up a stage for their protest rally outside the sub-divisional office. The state BJP unit is slated to hold the 'Save Democracy' campaign on Friday protesting against the Mamata Banerjee-led state government's atrocities across West Bengal.

According to sources, the local police went there late last night and dismantled the stage on grounds of violating the guidelines in Covid-19 pandemic. The state BJP is supposed to hold protest rallies and sit-in demonstrations at every block in the districts on Friday.

"The protest programme will start at 11 a.m. across all the districts. In Kolkata, it will start from 12 noon. There have been many such incidents where Mamata Banerjee's police are trying to stop our workers from participating in the demonstrations. They have dismantled some of our set-ups in the districts, too," state BJP vice-president Ritesh Tiwari said.