Rupa Ganguly heckled, convoy attacked by 'TMC supporters'

Actor-turned BJP leader Rupa Ganguly was today heckled and her convoy attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters near Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district when she was returning to the city.

The incident happened when Ganguly, along with other BJP workers, was returning from Ishwaripur village near Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas after visiting a party worker, who was assaulted allegedly by TMC workers yesterday and was admitted to a local hospital there, a senior district police officer told PTI.

“Despite several requests, Rupa stopped her car and two other cars in her convoy near Diamond Harbour on her way to Kolkata and started talking to locals, which enraged them.  Some boys threw stones at the convoy while few women from the locality pulled Rupa’s hair and slapped another woman who was with her,” the officer said.

The police posted there intervened and restrained the locals and took control of the situation, he said, adding though Rupa was “not injured”, she was taken to a local hospital, where from she was released after a check-up.

“We have not arrested anybody in connection with the incident, but a police posting has been arranged in the locality,” he said.

The BJP leader and the party workers accompanying her, however, alleged that they were attacked by TMC activists.

Ganguly, the chief of BJP’s state Mahila Morcha unit, had unsuccessfully contested from Howrah (North) seat against TMC’s Laxmi Ratan Shukla in the just-concluded state assembly elections.