Kolkata (Gurpreet Singh): Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Kalyan Banerjee, sustained a head injury on Sunday after being allegedly attacked and mobbed by a group of protesters near the Chanditala Police Station in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. The incident occurs just a day after a violent mob targeted TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the South 24 Parganas district, intensifying political tensions in the state.
The confrontation took place when Kalyan Banerjee, the Member of Parliament from Sreerampore, arrived at the Chanditala premises to submit an official memorandum protesting the arrest of local TMC workers following the recent Assembly elections. Due to heavy traffic congestion at the Chanditala market crossing, the veteran lawmaker was walking toward the station alongside his personal security officer when he was confronted by a hostile crowd. The protesters waved black flags, shouted aggressive anti-TMC slogans, and hurled a stone that struck the MP on the back of his head. Visuals from the scene showed a bleeding Banerjee holding a cloth to his head, and he later staged a sit-in protest (dharna) directly outside the police station to condemn the assault.
The TMC leadership has strongly condemned the incident, directly accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of executing a pre-planned attack. TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee lashed out on social media, stating that the assault was a deliberate attempt to silence opposition voices and subvert democratic processes. Following the encounter, Kalyan Banerjee criticized the local state police for remaining passive bystanders during the commotion, though he extended his thanks to the central security forces who stepped in to safely evacuate him from the hostile mob.
Conversely, the BJP has denied all allegations of orchestrating the violence. Local BJP representatives dismissed the incident, characterizing the confrontation as a spontaneous expression of public anger by local residents against regional TMC functionaries. The opposition party further alleged that the veteran MP was fabricating the severity of his injury to gain public sympathy and political leverage. Central security forces and large contingents of local police remain heavily deployed in the area to maintain order and prevent any further escalation of political unrest.
