Calcutta, Nov. 10 :    Calcutta, Nov. 10:  In the mid- sixties, College Street was the hotbed of Left extremist revolutionary rhetoric. In the seventies, the Congress student wing ruled with a heavy hand. The CPM's Student Federation of India has held sway since. Today, thousands of BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members virtually took over Calcutta's education hub. Over 5,000 activists of the BJP's student arm swarmed into College Street from across the city and the districts, causing more than mild surprise. They held a meeting on busy Bankim Chatterjee Street opposite Sanskrit College, throwing traffic out of gear for hours. Later, they marched to a venue on C.R. Avenue to attend a three-day state conference of the Parishad that began today. Police officials confirmed that several thousand ABVP activists took part in the rally in violation of traffic rules. 'We have initiated cases against those attending the rally,' said an official of Amherst police station. Amitava Chakraborty, the Parishad's state secretary, claimed the rally was proof that they were a force to reckon with in Bengal. The BJP, which had no elected representative from Bengal till 1998 when Tapan Sikdar was elected MP, has two Parliament members now and two MLAs. 'Today, we have representatives in nearly 75 colleges across the state and also control students' unions in three colleges, including one in Kidderpore,' Chakraborty said. Organising secretary Amal Chatterjee said the membership was less than 8,000 five years ago. 'But today we have enrolled more than 20,000 members and another 10,00 have applied,' he added. Parishad leaders claimed that those sidelined in the SFI and Chhatra Parishad had joined them. 'Our next year's target is to enroll more than 30,000 members,' they said. Concerned over the Parishad's growth, SFI leaders confirmed that the BJP students' wing had begun to court 'disgruntled' members. 'Though the Parishad is yet to build an effective organisation in colleges, they are constantly trying to woo our cadre,' they said. Of 372 colleges where elections are held on a regular basis, the SFI controls 254, while the Opposition - Congress and Trinamul Congress - has unions in 110 colleges. Kallol Ghosh, general secretary of SFI, termed the recent trend of anti-SFI forces joining hands with the Parishad dangerous. 'We have won the elections in North Bengal University defeating all anti-SFI forces, including some in the Left,' he added. Naxalite leader Asim Chatterjee, who had led the student movement in the sixties and who is now a convert to parliamentary democracy, wondered how Parishad members mustered the courage to overrun College Street. 'This shows that the Sangh Parivar's students' union has made steady inroads in the state during the past few years,' he added. Chatterjee recalled that the Left students' union of Presidency College had forced the authorities to suspend classes for over four months in 1966. 'Today, I feel ashamed to think that a students' union controlled by the Sangh Parivar wields its influence on students of the College Street area,' he said.