Sporadic incidents of violence were witnessed during the strike on Tuesday.
In the morning, a group of Trinamul Congress activists allegedly attacked the CPI(M) zonal committee office at Gangulybagan in Jadavpur in presence of the police.
When the media went to cover the incident, they were also attacked. Three journalists were mercilessly beaten up. CPI(M) district secretary of South 24 Parganas Sujan Chakraborty said that 12 workers of the ruling party stormed into the office and indulged in massive vandalism.
Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will lead a rally in the area on Wednesday in protest of the attack, CPI(M) central committee member Gautam Deb informed.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, however, described the incident as fabricated. “It was a planned incident. You (news channels) have fabricated it. I know the channels’ fabricate such incidents. I do not have anything to say,” she said. The Kolkata Press Club condemned the attack.
In the afternoon, a group of CPI(M) cadres led by chairman of Rajarhat-Gopalpur municipality Tapas Chatterjee allegedly attacked a school — Gopalpur Ramkumar Kamal Vidyalay — at Bablatala in Rajarhat. Soon Trinamul Congress MLA and vice-chairman of the Bidhannagar municipality Sabyasachi Dutta rushed to the spot. A pitched battle followed between the workers of the two parties. In the clash, Mr Dutta’s security guard Swapan Midda was beaten up and his service revolver was allegedly snatched by a CPI(M) cadre who started firing. With deep head injuries, he was admitted at the ICCU at Belle Vue Clinic.