Trinamool Congress' (TMC) national general secretary and a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee has shared a video of an alleged attack on his convoy in Tripura's Agartala.
He alleged that the attack was by BJP workers.
Banerjee is in Agartala on a day-long visit, as a part of the TMC's recent focus on Tripura. Last week, 23 members of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the political consultancy firm of political strategist Prashant Kishor, who ran the TMC's campaign for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, were placed under "house arrest" in a Agartala hotel. I-PAC was in Agartala to do "ground surveys" for the TMC ahead of the Tripura state elections in 2023.
"Democracy in Tripura under @BJP4India rule! Well done @BjpBiplab for taking the state to new heights," said Banerjee in a tweet, tagging Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb, who's from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
He also faced protests by alleged BJP workers in various parts of the city on his way to and back from the Tripureshwari Temple in Agartala. Apart from the temple visit, Banerjee will be interacting with the media in the city.
Before Banerjee landed in Agartala on the morning of 2 August, the TMC alleged that posters put up by the party for his visit were torn and destroyed by the BJP.
After the I-PAC team was detained by the police at Agartala's Woodland Hotel on 26 July, a string of TMC leaders have visited the city.
Following the detention, TMC leaders and Bengal ministers, Moloy Ghatak and Bratya Basu flew down to the city and held a press conference condemning the "illegal detention".
Thereafter, TMC MPs Derek O'Brien and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar also visited Agartala where they inducted seven leaders of the Tripura Congress into the party.
An Agartala Court released the 23-member I-PAC team on unconditional bail with a Rs 10,000 bond per person, on Thursday, 29 July.
All of them were earlier served individual notices summoning them to an Agartala police station for questioning between 1 and 3 August. A case had been registered against all 23 of them for allegedly violating COVID protocol in the state while doing their field work.
As per reports, the Trinamool Congress is looking to make electoral inroads in Tripura.
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