Month after vandalism, Mamata Banerjee unveils Vidyasagar bust at Kolkata college

Kolkata, June 11: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday unveiled a bust of the noted reformer at the Vidyasagar College, a month after a bust of the Bengal icon was vandalised in Kolkata.

The bust of Vidyasagar, a 19th-century social reformer, was vandalised in clashes between the BJP and Trinamool Congress workers at Vidyasagar College during the BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow on May 14.

The violence apparently began after suspected TMC supporters hurled stones at the BJP convoy from inside the hostel of Vidyasagar College. Furious BJP workers retaliated, and during the clash a bust of the polymath-social reformer inside the campus was damaged.

Later while addressing a meeting in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to build a grand ''panch dhatu'' statue of Vidyasagar at the same spot where the old one stood before being vandalized.

Banerjee, however, publicly denied the proposal and asserted that her state has got enough money to make the structure.