Abhishek Banerjee Faces Hostile Reception During Visit to Violence Victims' Families

Abhishek Banerjee, the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, faced aggression on Saturday when he visited Sonarpur in West Bengal to meet families affected by post-election violence. Residents reportedly threw stones and eggs, even hurling abuse and attempting physical attacks.

Televised images showed Banerjee being hastily removed from the scene, wearing a helmet as his clothing was damaged during the uproar. Banerjee described the attack as premeditated, citing the absence of police protection, and vowed to stay until law enforcement arrived to safeguard the victims' families.

The chaos was fueled by allegations from local women accusing Banerjee of hypocrisy, questioning his motives and past inaction on other social issues. Concurrently, Samik Bhattacharya, president of the BJP in West Bengal, attributed the outrage to prolonged local resentment and distanced his party from the incident.

Authorities later dispatched large numbers of central forces and police officers to bring the unrest under control and secure Banerjee's departure.

(With inputs from agencies.)