A group of purported Trinamool Congress supporters vandalised the car of Sushil Barman, the BJP MLA of Mathabhanga, near the Ghoksadanga railway station in Cooch Behar district on Friday afternoon.
They also assaulted his associate and demonstrated before the MLA.
The MLA filed a complaint at the local police station.
“I had been to the railway station to buy a ticket. Some Trinamool supporters shouted slogans and almost cordoned off my car. They assaulted one of my associates and pelted the car with stones. The rear windscreen was damaged, and somehow, my security personnel took me out of the place,” said the MLA.
“The attack had been pre-planned and shows that Trinamool is jittery about the coming Assembly elections. I have filed a complaint at the Ghoksadanga police station,” he added.
When Barman reached the station around 1.30pm, a group of Trinamool supporters, who had arrived there to head for Calcutta for the July 21 Martyrs’ Day Rally, accosted him. They raised slogans against alleged harassment and arrests of Bengali migrant workers in BJP-ruled states.
“While the MLA was walking back to his car, they followed him and raised slogans. When security personnel and an associate tried to remove the agitators from near the car, the Trinamool supporters heckled and assaulted them,” said a source.
A video showed bricks and stones hitting the MLA’s car as it left the place.
This is the second time in recent weeks that a BJP MLA has faced the wrath of Trinamool activists in Cooch Behar district. A few days ago, Sitalkuchi BJP MLA Baren Roy had faced a similar protest.
On Friday evening, BJP supporters assembled at Morapora Chowpathi, a prominent road crossing in Cooch Behar town, and staged a road blockade in protest against the attack on Barman’s car. The blockade continued for around half an hour and was lifted after the police intervened.
District Trinamool leaders, however, claimed that no one associated with their party was involved in the incident.
“Some Trinamool workers were at the railway station to head for Calcutta. But they were not involved in the incident,” said Partha Pratim Roy, the spokesperson for the Cooch Behar district committee of Trinamool.
He said some local people approached the MLA and asked him what he was doing to stop the “atrocities faced by Bengalis” in other states.
“He did not reply and misbehaved with them. This led to tension in the area, and his car was damaged,” added Roy.