Sovan Chatterjee skips BJP roadshow in Kolkata

Kolkata, Jan 04: BJP''s Kolkata zone observer and former city mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Monday skipped a party roadshow that he was scheduled to lead in the metropolis.

Chatterjee could not attend the rally due to the sudden illness of his friend Baisakhi Banerjee, BJP sources said.

The roadshow, led by senior BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya, Mukul Roy and Arjun Singh, came face-to-face with a TMC street-corner meeting near Kidderpore.

The BJP alleged that TMC activists hurled shoes towards the convoy of the saffron party leaders'' cars and chairs at the party workers.

The police, which gave verbal permission for the rally, prevented a flare-up by stopping some activists of the BJP''s youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) from approaching towards the TMC members.

Around 100 motorcycles and a flower-decked truck were part of the rally that began on Watgunj Road and passed through Alipore before culminating at the BJP''s election office in Hastings. It was originally scheduled to end at the party''s state headquarters in central Kolkata.

BJP leader Mukul Roy said the roadshow was against the "misrule" of the TMC government.

Party spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said every leader and activist is part of the people''s movement to dislodge the TMC from power in the state and it is not an individual show.

Dismissing the BJP''s allegations that TMC activists hurled shoes and chairs at its members, Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said, "We are not bothered if the BJP takes out a rally as we have other important work to do."