Senior Bengal BJP leaders take part in protest rally over school job loss, Murshidabad violence

Kolkata: Senior West Bengal BJP leaders on Sunday slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the loss of over 25,000 school jobs and alleged attacks on Hindus in Murshidabad, as they took part in a massive protest rally from College Square to Dharmatala in the metropolis.

The rally was led by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, former state party president Dilip Ghosh and judge-turned-MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

The protesters held placards and raised slogans, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of “massive corruption” and “appeasement politics”. Tyres were also burnt by a section of the agitators in Dharmatala.

The demonstrations took place amid outrage after the Supreme Court invalidated the appointments of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staffers of schools in the state, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted", and incidents of communal tension in parts of Bengal.

“This regime has not only betrayed lakhs of unemployed youths, but also allowed a law-and-order collapse, with Hindus being attacked in their homeland,” Adhikari said, referring to the communal flare-up in Murshidabad.

Majumdar alleged that the state government was “shielding radicals” and suppressing voices of dissent. “From jobs to justice, everything is being looted in Bengal,” he asserted.

Adhikari said his party will also seek a CBI investigation into the killing of a man and his son in Murshidabad’s Samserganj.

“This protest is about saving Bengal’s future,” Ghosh said.

Several protest rallies were also organised by the BJP, including in Murshidabad and Birbhum, condemning the violence.

At least three people were killed, several others injured and a number of shops torched after protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent in Suti and Samserganj blocks of Murshidabad district. Hundreds of people also started to flee those areas since the violence erupted on Friday.