Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the state legislative assembly Suvendu Adhikari, a party politician, announced on Sunday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would mark July 21 as "Murder of Democracy Day" in West Bengal as a protest against the purported atrocities of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). The planned protest will take place in tandem with the TMC's yearly "Martyrs' Day" rally.
"Murder of Democracy Day" will be observed on July 21. "On July 21, we will burn an effigy of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim," Speaking to reporters outside the Raj Bhavan, Adhikari declared. With 300 purported victims of violence following the election, Adhikari organized a sit-in outside Kolkata's Raj Bhavan. He also declared that he would soon gather 100 voters who were unable to cast ballots in the most recent assembly byelections outside the Raj Bhavan.
I'm going to get up one hundred folks who were unable to vote in the most recent assembly bypoll and line them up outside Raj Bhavan's gates very soon. That demonstration would be purely symbolic. I'm going to open a portal so those who were denied the ability to vote can register their names. Standing outside Raj Bhavan, he told reporters, I am planning for a bigger movement.
A political controversy surfaced earlier in June following reports that Adhikari was prevented from holding a rally outside Raj Bhavan by the Kolkata Police. Subsequently, on July 14, the Calcutta High Court gave the BJP permission to stage a sit-in outside Raj Bhavan. He indicated that beginning on July 19, members of the LoP and the BJP will pay visits to the homes of those who were intimidated or prevented from casting their ballots in the most recent by-elections. The party may also organize a march to the state secretariat.
All four assembly seats—Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, Raiganj, and Maniktala—were taken over by the ruling Trinamool Congress on July 10 following bypolls. The BJP had won all three of these seats in the 2021 assembly elections, with the exception of Maniktala, which has historically been a TMC stronghold. However, the BJP MLAs eventually took the TMC's position.
In response to the accusations, senior TMC politician Kunal Ghosh stated that leaders such as Adhikari, who had earlier made grandiose claims about securing a large number of seats in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls, were dejected due to West Bengal's people's continuous rejection of the BJP in every election.
The way the BJP is belittling the grief of the bereaved families and opposition activists who faced the terror and atrocities committed by the CPI(M) during those times is pitiful. TMC leader Kunal Ghosh told the media that leaders such as Adhikari are demonstrating the fallacy of their ideas by selecting July 21 as the protest day.
