Councillors from the Trinamul Congress and the BJP engaged in a scuffle in the council house of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation during a monthly meeting on Saturday.
The trouble started when Trinamul councillor Ashim Bose rose from his seat, walked towards Sajal Ghosh of the BJP. Both of them were seen saying something in an agitated manner while looking at chairperson Mala Roy, who was seated in front of them. Suddenly Bose, the councillor of Ward 70, pushed Ghosh, the councillor of Ward 50.
This set off a scuffle.
Vijay Ojha, BJP councillor from Ward 23, then moved towards Ghosh and tried to push Bose but the bigger Bose overpowered him. By then, some other councillors had arrived. Many of them tried to separate the warring sides. The jostling continued for a few minutes.
Mayor Firhad Hakim, mayoral council members Debashish Kumar and Sandipan Saha went towards the side of the well where the scuffle was going on and tried to pacify the two sides.
Both Bose and Ghosh will be served show cause notices, said Mala Roy, the chairperson of the council house
Both BJP and Trinamul blamed the other for the trouble. “The mayor had said that opposition councillors did not ask enough questions and we were responding to him. Suddenly, Bose came up from his seat and pushed Sajal (Ghosh). They thought they would beat up and scare us, but we resisted,” said Ojha.
Bose told The Telegraph that Ghosh “kept saying that Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee and Firhad Hakim have looted people’s money”. “It was then that I tried to push him away. I did not hit him.”
Two arrested for abducting Dhanbad teen
Two youths were arrested on Thursday night for allegedly abducting a 19-year-old Karan Kumar from Dhanbad from outside Mohar Kunja on Cathedral Road, on Wednesday afternoon and later demanding a ransom.
Sheikh Faizal and Clinton Rodney were rounded up from Mominpore and Ekbalpore following a complaint lodged with Hastings police station by Birendra Pandit, the victim’s uncle, officers said.
