TMC, BJP 'compete' with colourful processions to mark 'Poila Boishakh' amid ongoing Waqf tension in Bengal

Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress and opposition BJP on Tuesday took out colourful 'shobhayatras' (processions) to herald the Bengali New Year amid the political storm over the violence in Murshidabad district.

Senior TMC leader and West Bengal Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya led the party's rally in south Kolkata where many of the participants, a large number of them women wore traditional Bengali attire.

Amid the beating of the dhak (drum) and singing of 'Banglar Mati Banglar Jol' (we love the soil of Bengal, the rivers of Bengal), Bhattacharya and the participants walked along Rasbehari Avenue.

"On this day of 'Bangla Nabobarsho' (New Year) let us take the pledge to defeat forces which want to disrupt the centuries-old amity and peaceful co-existence of Hindus and Muslims and other communities in Bengal. The land of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam will never support any divisive ploy. This had also been asserted in unequivocal terms by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee earlier," she said.

Without directly naming the BJP, she said "Those peddling hatred and division in society will never be accepted by the people of Bengal despite plotting conspiracies."

The BJP took out a rally in central Kolkata. Former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh participating in the rally said, "Let's take the pledge to dislodge the appeasement-practising TMC government from Bengal which have looked the other way as Islamist jihadis have wreaked havoc in Murshidabad district and elsewhere and turning Bengal into another Bangladesh."

"Bengali Hindus are fleeing from their residences in Murshidabad district and the TMC MP and MLAs did precious little to ensure their safety. This Nabobarsho assumes another significance in the backdrop of the riots and attacks on properties and Hindus in Murshidabad and elsewhere in the state," Ghosh, flanked by party leaders Agnimitra Paul and Shamik Bhattacharya said.

Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari in another Nabobarsho rally in Tamluk, gave call "to end the current situation of lawlessness and attack by jihadi elements in many parts of Bengal and end the misrule of Mamata Banerjee regime."