West Bengal: No links to BJP, common people will march to state secretariat, says Chhatra Samaj

Students' group Chatra Samaj said it was determined to march to state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday, seeking justice for the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital and demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Addressing reporters at the Kolkata Press Club on Monday, Chatra Samaj spokesperson Sayan Lahiri said state employees forum Sangrami Joutho Mancha would also join the 'Nabanna Abhijan' programme in solidarity with the demands.

Processions to Nabanna in Howrah would start simultaneously around noon from multiple places -- College Square and Fort William in Kolkata, and Howrah Bridge, Howrah Maidan and Satragachi in Howrah, he said.

''But, we have asked everyone to be peaceful and not resort to any provocations of violence,'' he added.

Asked about police and TMC's claims about the likelihood of violence during the programme, Lahiri rejected those as ''baseless''.

''We aim to raise our demands peacefully. We will attempt to proceed to the state secretariat going past the police barricades in a non-violent manner to demand the CM's resignation due to her failure to prevent incidents like the RG Kar case, which has shocked the nation,'' he said.

Lahiri also denied the programme having any links with BJP, RSS or ABVP.

''We are requesting leaders of all political parties, including the BJP, not to come to the forefront as it is a rally of common people whose only demand is justice for the family of the deceased doctor,'' he said.

On the claims that one of the leaders of Chatra Samaj met a BJP leader at a hotel in Kolkata, he said, ''All kinds of false charges are being levelled against us. To my knowledge, none of us met any BJP leader yesterday.'' Asked about the expected turnout, he said, ''Since the programme was organised through a social media campaign, we cannot provide an exact estimate. However, we have urged everyone to maintain peace.'' On the police's statement that no permission was sought for the rally, Lahiri said the group informed the authorities about it via e-mail, besides discussing it with senior officers multiple times.

Responding to a question on whether they were making efforts to replicate a Bangladesh-like movement in the state with students at the forefront, he said, ''The situation in two places is completely different. We have no intention to create lawlessness.'' Lahiri, who admitted his previous links with the ABVP, said that as an ordinary citizen, his demand was to hear from the chief minister.

''She was also a student once and a streetfighter. Why she has fallen back on administration and why her administration had been giving different spins and twists to the gruesome attack on a woman?'' On TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh's statement that the march should head to the CBI office in CGO Complex instead of Nabanna as the central agency was now probing the case, Lahiri said, ''For now, let us proceed to Nabanna, which is the citadel of power in the state. We can think about CGO later.''

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)