Gadkari to boycott Bengal business summit, says state BJP

West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh on Friday claimed Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari will not attend the Bengal Global Business Summit starting from next Tuesday as a protest against the attack on BJP workers by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

"There is no environment of democracy in the state. The ruling party has been treating us as their enemy. We have urged our central leadership and the central government to examine whether they would cooperate with the state government or not," Ghosh said while holding a protest demonstration here.

"Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari was supposed to attend the Bengal global business summit. I think, he will boycott the summit to mark a protest," he told reporters.

Clashes broke out on Friday between workers of the state's ruling Trinamool Congress and activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's Bengal unit ahead of the latter trying to take out a "Protirodh Sankalp Abhiyan" bike rally in the city.

The BJP alleged that some Trinamool workers hurled stones at their members and also attacked them with sticks, while the Trinamool, denying the allegations, accused BJP workers of indulging in vandalism.

Ghosh said the state BJP leadership urged Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who was here for the party programme, to convey the conditions in the state to the central government.

Condemning Ghosh's claim, state Minister and Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said: "Party and the government are two different platforms. If the central minister does not attend, it would imply that employment, investments are not in the centre's priority."

--IANS

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