Kolkata, Sep 11 (PTI) Several BJP activists were injured in clashes with police in the city on Wednesday during a rally against hike in power tariff in West Bengal, party sources said.
The BJP president Amit Shah and the state unit president Dilip Ghosh, who is in Delhi in connection with an organisational meeting, have been informed of the incident, the sources said.
Shah has asked the state leadership to submit to him the details about the incident, they said.
The clash broke out during a BJP Bengal unit organised protest rally from the party's state headquarters on Central Avenue to Victoria House, the headquarters of a private power utility in the city.
Two BJP state general secretaries Sayantan Basu and Raju Banerjee along with several top state leaders including party MP and president of its Mahila Morcha Locket Chatterjee, participated in the rally.
Kolkata police tried to stop them by putting up barricades on Central Avenue and the force claimed that the BJP workers brickbatted its personnel.
Following this the police used water cannons and burst tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. It also resorted to lathi charge.
The BJP claimed that Basu, Banerjee, BJP Yuva Morcha state president Debjit Sarkar and about a hundred BJP workers were arrested.
It also claimed that about 85 party activists were injured and several of them have been admitted to the hospital.
"The power tariff of this private power supplier is much higher than other power suppliers. It is even more than that charged by the state electric supply corporation. But the state government has not taken any action against the company as it is hand in glove with this private entity in looting the masses," Basu told reporters.
Banerjee alleged that the ruling TMC is being funded by the private power utility company.
BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also in charge of Bengal, hit out at the police for "acting as goons and cadres of TMC" in the state.
"The TMC government is involved in corruption in the matter of power tariffs and meter reading. The cost of power is much higher in Kolkata and Bengal than in other states of the country. When BJP workers today protested against it, police resorted to goondaism," Vijayvargiya said.
Senior TMC leader and minister Tapas Roy termed the allegations against the party and state government as baseless and said it is BJP which has "sold itself to big corporate houses" and is accusing others.
"BJP is hand in gloves with corporate houses," Roy said.
