SERAMPORE (WEST BENGAL): The workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress clashed over the ''purification'' of a bust of Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee at Serampore in West Bengal's Hooghly district. Three persons were arrested in connection with the incident, the police said.
The ''purification'' of the bust followed the defacement of another statue of Mookerjee in Kolkata on March 7. The statue was attacked a day after two statues of communist icon Lenin were vandalised in Tripura in the wake of the declaration of the Assembly poll results in the north-eastern state.
The clash took place when BJP supporters had gathered at the RMS ground for the ''purification'' of the bust with milk and water, the police said, adding that a group of TMC workers stopped them and poured milk on the bust.
Nine BJP supporters, including the party's Serampore unit president Bhaskar Bhattacharya, were injured in the incident and admitted to a hospital. Bhattacharya alleged that the TMC workers, led by two councillors, attacked the BJP workers and beat them up, adding that even he was not spared.
Later, the BJP workers blocked the GT Road at Sheoraphuli and Serampore to protest against incident. The police commissioner Ajay Kumar said three persons were arrested for their involvement in the clash.
