TMC says 'Modi hatao desh bachao' at South Block

Venting out its ire against the Centre's demonetisation move and the arrest of party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Rose Valley chit-fund scam, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday took their protest to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and raised slogans of 'Modi hatao desh bachao'.

The protesting TMC leaders were detained by the police.

"We have gathered here to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sa demonetisation and the political vendetta against the Trinamool Congress. We are not concerned of what the BJP says. Our protest will go on," TMC leader Saugata Roy told the media here.

Accusing the Centre of indulging in political vendetta, Roy earlier in the day said that his party cannot be cowed down by the threats and actions of the BJP-led NDA regime and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"Our protest is to show that we cannot be cowed down by the threats and the actions of the Central Government and the CBI. As far as West Bengal is concerned, there have been some spontaneous protests against the arrest of our Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay. But our main movement is against demonetisation, which has harmed the common people and put them to terrible difficulty," he added.

Meanwhile, a BJP delegation comprising of party leaders Kailash Vijaywargiya, Sidharth Nath Singh and Rahul Sinha met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to submit a memorandum against the alleged violence in West Bengal.

The TMC workers yesterday blocked the National Highway-2 near Asansol in protest against the arrest of the TMC MP besides agitating in front of the BJP office in central Kolkata.

The TMC has alleged that Bandyopadhyay's arrest is an example of 'vendetta politics' by the Centre.

The CBI earlier on January 3 arrested Bandyopadhyay in connection with the Rose Valley chit-fund scam.

This came after TMC MP and actor-politician Tapas Paul was arrested by the CBI in the same case.