Suspected Trinamool workers damaged the SUV of Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, during his visit to Cooch Behar town on Tuesday.

Adhikari called it Trinamool’s planned attack. District Trinamool leaders denied the charge, accusing the BJP leader of “theatrics”. Police have arrested a person in connection with the incident and have begun a probe.

Adhikari had planned to reach the office of the Cooch Behar SP to submit a memo in protest of recent attacks on some district BJP MLAs. On the same day, Trinamool decided to hold protests in 19 locations of the district against the attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in the BJP-ruled states and notices by the foreigners’ tribunal of Assam to some residents, seeking proof of their Indian citizenship.

In the afternoon, as Adhikari reached Khagrabari, the entry point to Cooch Behar town, Trinamool workers resorted to protests, walking in front of his convoy. As the convoy slowed down, bricks and sticks were hurled at the rear windscreen of the SUV in which Adhikari was seated. Adhikari’s security personnel and cops somehow escorted the convoy to the district BJP office.

“It was a planned attack on my life, orchestrated by (Trinamool leader) Udayan Guha. The police indirectly helped Trinamool. Such attempts, however, cannot deter me from carrying out my political programme,” Adhikari said after reaching the BJP office.

“I was in the car of (former BJP MP) Nisith Pramanik. It is a bullet-proof car. Still, Trinamool workers broke its rear windscreen. It shows the intensity of the attack,” he added.

From the BJP office, Adhikari and four other BJP MLAs went to the SP’s office and gave the memorandum. “There is no democracy in Bengal. Trinamool brought Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas to Khagrabari for the attack,” Adhikari alleged. Those who organised the attack will face legal consequences,” he added.

Trinamool leaders in Cooch Behar, however, denied the charges. “Suvendu Adhikari tried to incite our supporters while he was moving through Khagrabari. His convoy stopped, and his people took out sticks from the cars and tried to attack our people. There was a 'situation' but the police promptly handled it,” district Trinamool chief Abhijit De Bhowmik claimed.

Partha Pratim Roy, the party’s district spokesperson, claimed: “No one from Trinamool was involved in the ransack. Suvendu Adhikari and the other BJP leaders are resorting to theatrics.” The police arrested one Ranajit Dey, whom the BJP leaders claimed was a Trinamool supporter, but the latter denied it.