Kolkata: Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday accused the BJP-led West Bengal government of pursuing “political vendetta” against his party after he was questioned for nearly six hours over a scuffle at his office here last week during the removal of an unauthorised billboard.
Banerjee, who walked out of Shakespeare Sarani police station after the questioning, alleged that around 1,000 people were sent to his Camac Street office to remove the party’s signboard as part of a politically motivated action against the Trinamool Congress.
“If they think they can stop the Trinamool Congress through false cases, they are mistaken. Let them use whatever power they have,” the TMC national general secretary told reporters outside the police station.
On August 27, 2026, officials from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), escorted by the police, arrived at Banerjee’s Camac Street office to dismantle an allegedly illegal, unauthorized billboard carrying TMC signage.
A heated clash broke out when TMC workers and private security guards tried to block the civic body from entering. The confrontation escalated when senior party leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, arrived at the scene.
Police authorities filed three First Information Reports (FIRs) alleging rioting, assault on public servants, and pulling the collars of uniformed officers. Banerjee is directly named as an accused in two of these FIRs, with additional accusations that he failed to stop his party workers during the scuffle.
Banerjee’s legal team approached the Calcutta High Court looking for an interim shield, but the court declined to grant protection from coercive action.
Emerging from the Shakespeare Sarani police station, Banerjee and the TMC leadership asserted that the state’s BJP government is deliberately weaponizing administrative machinery to intimidate political opponents.
TMC leaders countered the police narrative, calling reports of private guards initiating the violence “fake news”. Derek O’Brien claimed that police personnel barged in with an illegal notice, assaulted senior leaders, and heckled office staff.
Banerjee’s questioning was met with intense protests outside the station, where hundreds of TMC supporters gathered to shout slogans condemning the state government’s actions.
