Bengal: Communal intimidation, vandalism reported a day after BJP comes to power

Several instances of alleged communal intimidation and vandalism were reported in West Bengal on Tuesday, a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Assembly elections in the state.

Winning 207 of the 294 Assembly seats, the BJP defeated the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in the results announced on Monday, ending its 15-year rule in the state.

Early on Tuesday, BJP workers climbed a gate named Masjid Bari Road in the Moyna area in North 24 Pargana’s Barasat town and took down the nameplate, India Today reported. The workers then replaced the nameplate with a hoarding that read “Netaji Pally Road”.

Nitish Mondal, a BJP leader, said it had been the party’s long-standing demand that the road be renamed.

“We have been requesting this for the last 10-15 years, but could not do it,” India Today quoted Mondal as saying.

He also claimed that of the 15,000 residents living in this area, the Muslim population is about 500 to 1,000. “So the people of the area spontaneously took part and changed the name,” the BJP leader was quoted as saying.

In another incident in North 24 Parganas, BJP workers allegedly asked the staff of a biryani shop located near a temple in Bongaon to move the establishment elsewhere, Alt News reported. In a video circulated on social media, a person carrying a BJP flag could also be heard...

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