TMC govt stopping BJP workers from helping poor, threatening them: Sambit Patra

The BJP on Tuesday accused the TMC-led West Bengal government of threatening its party workers to stop doing any relief work in the state, pointing out that it is not the time for petty politics but to serve the people unitedly.

Condemning the West Bengal government alleged action, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said while the TMC workers are being allowed to carry on with their relief work, the BJP workers have not only been stopped from providing succour to the poor but were also arrested in many cases.

“BJP MLA and former Bidhan Nagar Mayor Sabhyasachi Dutt was not only stopped from distributing food packets to the needy in his own constituency but was even detained by police for doing it," said Patra.

"The police had barged into his house and threatened him and his wife. And today he was detained,” added Patra.

On BJP President J P Nadda’s call to party workers to "help the poor, hungry and migrant labourers" among others, the party activists came out in large number to help the needy in West Bengal.

Stressing on the recourse to sensitivity amid the country-wide lockdown to curb COVID-19 spread, Patra said, ”At a time when we should be unitedly working as one nation to serve the people, some political outfits are giving more priority to petty politics.”

In a similar incident, Patra said, BJP’s Bengal general secretary Sayantan Basu approached the nearest police station to seek their help in distributing relief material, but he was threatened by the “Mamata Banerjee-led administration.”

"We condemn such political high-handedness in such trying times,” he said.

Citing another case of harassment of BJP workers in Puducherry, Patra said the BJP's state president and MLA Saminathan has been booked for distributing rice to the poor by the Congress government.