MoS Shantanu Thakur detained, Subhas Sarkar takes out Yatra sans workers

The first leg of BJP’s ‘Shahid Samman Yatra’, which started in different parts of the state, faced huge hurdles with Union minister for state (MoS) for shipping, Shantanu Thakur, being detained by the police near Kolkata Airport ahead of the Yatra for violating the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA) during the pandemic. He, along with the BJP workers, were later released on bail.

The ‘Shahid Samman Yatra, similar to the party’s nationwide Ashirwad Yatra, started on Tuesday morning from the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata. Four union ministers of state –– Subhas Sarkar, John Barla, Nishith Pramanik and Shantanu Thakur –– led the Yatra from different parts of Bengal.

Subhash Sarkar led the Yatra from Kolkata. However, the police did not allow any BJP worker to accompany Sarkar in the yatra.


The Yatra, which was planned to be taken out from Airport area to Barasat in North 24 Parganas, was led by Shantanu Thakur. Before embarking on the Yatra, Shantanu Thakur entered a temple in the area to offer puja, following which the police urged people not to assemble due to the pandemic. The BJP workers did not listen to the instructions by the police and engaged in a scuffle with the police. The police prevented the Yatra near the Kolkata International Airport as the party allegedly did not have police permission.

Thakur wrote a letter to Inspector in-charge of the Airport police station in which he claimed that he was picked up by the police from a temple near the airport where he offered puja along with BJP state leader Jayprakash Majumdar and other BJP workers.

Thakur, a Matua Mahasangh leader, stated in his letter that he was made to wait at the police station for almost two hours till he was issued bail at around 2pm.

Shantanu Thakur, the BJP MP from Bongaon, then went to the house of a victim of post-poll violence, Shantu Mondal, and offered a memento.

Meanwhile, another 26 workers, including Barasat Organisational District Convenor Anup Das, in custody at Madhyamgram, were detained in Barasat and Madhyamgram but were released later.

Ahead of the yatra, West Bengal state president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday claimed that there is no democracy in Bengal as the opposition is not allowed to move freely. The BJP party-office was barricaded and a huge police force was deployed to prevent the violation of NDMA and Covid protocol during the Yatra.

“I was unable to enter the party office as a huge number of policemen barricaded the area,” Ghosh said.

In Siliguri, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly, more than 200 people were detained on Tuesday morning for starting the Yatra without police permission. Chaos broke out in Siliguri as several workers, including MLA Sankar Ghosh, was arrested. Several workers were detained in Kolkata and Hooghly districts as they tried to participate in the Yatra.