A day after the convoy of BJP president J P Nadda, who was campaigning for the upcoming Bengal polls, was attacked in West Bengal, the Union home ministry on Friday summoned the state’s chief secretary and director general of police on December 14. An official said that the West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Director-General of Police (DGP) Virendra have been called by the home ministry.

The chief secretary and DGP are expected to be asked to explain the law and order situation in West Bengal, the steps taken to prevent political violence and other crimes in the state, another official said.

The two top-most civil and police officers of West Bengal were called by the home ministry within hours of receiving a report from West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on the law and order situation in the state.

The governor was asked to submit a report after Nadda’s convoy was attacked on Thursday when he was travelling to Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district to address a rally there. The home ministry is yet to receive a report from the state government on the “serious security lapses” during Nadda’s two-day visit to the state.

Nadda’s trip to the South 24 parganas came at the heels of the CM Banerjee bringing out the report card of the West Bengal government led by the TMC.

Also see: West Bengal election 2021-battleground for BJP & TMC

BJP president JP Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks and stones near Kolkata on Thursday. Home Minister Amit Shah had asked for a report on what he called “sponsored violence” and said that the state government would have to answer to people of the state. Dramatic videos shared online showed a car, said to be part of the BJP chief’s convoy, being attacked with bricks and the windscreen and windows shattering.

The TMC, however, accused the BJP of “intentional provocation” and attempting to malign the state government in the run-up to polls next year. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, countering the allegations said, “BJP is creating a new Hindu dharma. It is a hateful dharma. This is how Hitler became who he was. They are creating videos of incidents and sharing with the media. Nautanki is going on.” Her points have some substance given the fact that BJP and its cadres had earlier tried to create ruckus in Telinipara and in North Bengal. BJP is desperately trying to make inroads into Bengal, through the upcoming election, especially after the increased popularity of Mamata Banerjee because of her outreach campaign and staunch opposition of the central policies.

The BJP leaders were travelling to Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas near Kolkata when the attack took place around 12 noon. Diamond Harbour is the parliamentary constituency of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of the Chief Minister. Some BJP workers on motorcycles were attacked with sticks. Reports suggest that the attack was the result of the BJP convoy passing an area at the same time as a TMC protest. As the BJP leaders’ cars drove through a crowd, many ran alongside, thumping the vehicles with fists and using sticks and rods.