Shoes hurled at vehicles of Kailash Vijayvargiya, Mukul Roy during BJP roadshow in Kolkata

As the West Bengal Assembly elections are approaching, the battle between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be getting more fierce with each passing day. On Monday, shoes were allegedly hurled at vehicles occupied by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, party’s national vice-president Mukul Roy and MP Arjun Singh when they had gone for a roadshow in Kolkata’s Watganj area, as per a report carried by India Today.

The roadshow was originally scheduled to be held from Orphanganj Road to the state BJP headquarters in central Kolkata, but it was shortened after police denied permission for it.

Significantly, BJP’s new Kolkata zone observer and former city mayor Sovan Chatterjee gave the event a miss. BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh had earlier said that Chatterjee will lead the roadshow in the metropolis on Monday despite the police not giving permission for it.

He had said the "peaceful rally" will be taken out along the scheduled route from Kidderpore to the BJP's state headquarters in central Kolkata.

"From our past experiences, we know that the police withholds permission for BJP programmes. This is a peaceful rally to welcome

Sovan da to his new post. We will take out the rally despite the police not giving permission for it," Ghosh told reporters.

As per the report, as the procession crossed Watganj area, shoes and stones were hurled from a makeshift stage where a programme of the ruling Trinamool Congress was being held.

Heavy police deployment in the area prevented the incident from getting escalated, with policemen seen restraining members of both parties as the procession crossed the area to control the situation.

“The police did not grant us permission to hold roadshow from Alipore to central Kolkata. It allowed us to take out the roadshow till Hastings. We held the programme as per the permission and it was conducted peacefully. However some TMC workers hurled shoes and stones at us. Our workers showed restraint as we do not want to respond to provocations. We will not respond to violence with violence. We will respond through votes,” Vijayvargiya was quoted as saying.

The incident comes less than a month after BJP national president JP Nadda’s convoy was attacked with stones near Diamond Harbour. Vijayvargiya, who was also part of the convoy, had sustained minor injuries in the attack.