Bengal BJP courts arrests to protest Trinamool 'atrocities'

Protesting against the atrocities by the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the BJP leaders and workers on Thursday courted arrests during the party's "law violation programme" in central Kolkata.

Bharatiya Janata Party state unit chief Rahul Sinha denied any understanding between the BJP and the Trinamool and said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was trying to come close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overcome her problems.

"There is no understanding between Modi and Mamata. A prime minister has to sit with the chief minister of a state. So he sat with Mamata. But Mamata's aim is to overcome her problems by getting close to the prime minister," said Sinha.

He was peaking at the "law violation programme" that began in the form of rally from College Square to Rani Rashmoni Avenue.

A section of the media and the opposition parties have made what they call "Modi-Mamata bonhomie" a big issue by citing recent interactions between the two leaders and the Trinamool's support to the BJP-led NDA government in passing several laws in parliament.

Banerjee's detractors have also pointed to the Trinamool's silence on the raging Lalit Modi controversy that has put External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in a spot of trouble.

Accusing the Trinamool of letting loose a state-sponsored terrorism, Sinha said the BJP would not be cowed by the strong arm tactics of the state's ruling party.

With a number of BJP workers assembling to "court arrests", police officers declared all of them "arrested" but "released" them after some time without putting them in any prison van.

Sinha claimed that with the Trinamool failing to fulfil the people's expectations, and the Left Front existing "only in name", the BJP was the only alternative before the people in next year's state assembly polls.