Kolkata, Feb 7 (IANS): As West Bengal's East Midnapore district gears up to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP workers coming from West Midnapore's Keshpur area were allegedly attacked by Trinamool Congress activists on Sunday.
The incident took place at Darma as Trinamool activists allegedly ransacked a few vehicles that were carrying BJP supporters to Haldia for attending Modi's public rally. They pelted stones at the vehicles. A few BJP activists were also injured in the attack.
A number of posters and banners of Modi were torn off at Nandakumar high road last night. Local BJP supporters pointed fingers at the ruling Trinamool for the act. However, the state government denied the allegations.
In a separate incident, at least five BJP workers were injured, of whom one is critical, during a clash with Trinamool supporters at East Midnapore's Nandigram. The injured BJP workers were taken to Maheshpur primary health centre and two of them were admitted to Tomluk Hospital last night. One person who was critically injured in the attack was referred to a private hospital in Kolkata.
According to sources, the BJP activists were holding a party meeting for preparations of Modi's Haldia rally on Sunday. A group of TMC-backed miscreants alleged attacked them on Saturday evening in the area.
Meanwhile, Haldia industrial township was cordoned off with tight security ahead of a series of events by the Prime Minister.
Modi is set to visit West Bengal's East Midnapore district on Sunday to inaugurate a number of infrastructure projects in Haldia. During his visit, Modi is slated to address a public rally in Haldia at 4 p.m. on Sunday, making it his first election rally in the run up to the high-voltage Assembly election.
He will also lay foundation stones for key infrastructure projects such as a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import terminal built by Bharat Petroleum at an investment of around Rs 1,100 crore and has a capacity of 1 million metric tonnes per annum. He will also open the 348-km Dobhi-Durgapur natural gas pipeline section.
Apart from these, Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the second Catalytic-Iso-dewaxing unit of the Haldia refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation which will have a capacity of 270,000 metric tonnes per year.