New Delhi:
Just hours after Mamata Banerjee said student activists affiliated to the Left, who heckled her finance minister Amit Mitra in Delhi, tried to hurt her as well, CPM offices in West Bengal were allegedly attacked by workers of her party, the Trinamool Congress.
The offices of the Students Federation of India (SFI) were attacked in Hooghly's Sreerampore; the car of a former CPM leader was also ransacked there.
CPM's district office at Siliguri was attacked. The TMC workers, allegedly, also attacked a condolence meeting in Barrackpore for Sudipto Gupta, the 22-year-old activist who died last week.
Ms Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, and Mr Mitra were entering the Planning Commission office in New Delhi when Mr Mitra was heckled.
"They had an iron rod, they tried to hit me," Ms Banerjee had said at a press conference. "They can kill me but they can't stop me," she said of members of the SFI who manhandled Mr Mitra. The 62-year-old minister said women activists attacked him with sticks; his kurta was torn.
The students were protesting the death of their colleague, Sudipto Gupta. He was arrested during a demonstration by the police and ended up in hospital hours later with severe head injuries. Ms Banerjee has denied that the police battered him, as alleged by other students, and has said his death was "a petty matter."
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, said he had apologised to Ms Banerjee for the "unruly protests outside our office."
Even former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee condemned the attack on Mr Mitra. "This is wrong politics," he said. Ms Banerjee had ended the Left's 34-year rule on West Bengal when she came to power in 2011.
Ms Banerjee is in Delhi to seek financial assistance from the Centre for her state, which is entrenched with debt. She is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this evening.
In September, she quit his coalition, reducing the government to a minority. She said she did not agree with the economic reforms cleared by Dr Singh, who green-lit the arrival of foreign mega-stores like Wal-mart and Tesco.
Policemen deployed at the Planning Commission's office did not come to Mr Mitra's aid as he was heckled. The police later said that a group of 100 protesters had gathered at a gate that was not meant to be used by the Bengal leaders.
Ms Banerjee met the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Delhi, after the incident.