BJP workers injured in clashes with police

Several BJP activists were injured in clashes with police in the city on Wednesday during a rally against hike in power tariff in West Bengal, party sources said.

The BJP president Amit Shah and the state unit president Dilip Ghosh, who is in Delhi in connection with an organisational meeting, have been informed of the incident, the sources said.

Shah has asked the state leadership to submit to him the details about the incident.

The clash broke out during a BJP Bengal unit organised protest rally from the party's state headquarters on Central Avenue to Victoria House, the headquarters of a private power utility in the city.

Two BJP state general secretaries Sayantan Basu and Raju Banerjee along with several top state leaders including party MP and president of its Mahila Morcha Locket Chatterjee, participated in the rally.

Kolkata police tried to stop them by putting up barricades on Central Avenue and the force claimed that the BJP workers brickbatted its personnel. Following this the police used water cannons and burst tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.

The police also resorted to lathi charge.

The BJP claimed that Basu, Banerjee, BJP Yuva Morcha state president Debjit Sarkar and about a hundred BJP workers were arrested.

It also claimed that about 85 party activists were injured and several of them have been admitted to the hospital.

"The power tariff of this private power supplier is much higher than other power suppliers. It is even more than the state electric supply corporation. But the state government has not taken any action against the company as it is hand in glove with this private entity in looting the masses," Basu told reporters.