Bengal BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ on Saturday witnessed violence in Birbhum’s Ilambajar. The saffron party has blamed the TMC-backed miscreants for the development.

Local BJP cadres claimed that the TMC had threatened the people in the region’s Khadipukur Gram Panchayat to not attend the saffron party’s event, reported Bengali daily Sangbad Pratidin.

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After BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ rally in Ilambajar, the TMC allegedly attacked the hindutva brigade’s workers. Three of them – named Shekh Kazim, Shekh Mujibur, Shekh Kidai – were left with serious injuries and were taken to the hospital.

“The BJP workers are being threatened and beaten up if they attend any party event. The same happened at Ilambajar as well,” BJP’s Birbhum district secretary Dhruba Saha was quoted by the Bengali daily.

The ruling TMC, on the other hand, accused the BJP of running a bloodbath in the name of its ‘Parivartan Yatra’. Shekh Jalalludin claimed that the BJP workers were hurling abusive words at the local TMC cadres while participating in the ‘rathyatra’.

On protesting, three TMC workers, Shekh Selim, Mohammad Ajiz and Shekh Sukur, were beaten up, said the West Bengal governing party’s local leadership.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Roopa Ganguly in Birbhum has refused to call her party’s campaign to reach the doorstep of voters as ‘rathyatra’. She said BJP was calling it ‘Parivartan Yatra’, the party’s journey to development of Bengal.

While flagging off another phase of the ‘yatra’ in Bolpur Ganguly was seen saying to ABP Ananda, “This is a ‘Parivartan Yatra’. It can either be a bus or a tempo or a tableau.”

“We are traveling kilometres after kilometres. We are covering 72 kilometres a day. So obviously no one will walk so much, there’ll be a mode of transport. We can call it a rath or a tableau,” she added.

In an attempt to reach people at their doorsteps ahead of the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Election, BJP president JP Nadda started off the party’s ‘Parivartan Rathyatra’ from Nabadwip in Nadia district, the birthplace of 15th century saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

On Thursday in North Bengal’s Coochbehar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also inaugurated one of the five proposed yatras. Several other top BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, are also likely to take part later.

The Hindutva brigade launched similar yatras from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas, Jhargram and Tarapith in Birbhum.