Amit Shah faces black-flag protest in Kolkata
Kolkata, Aug 11 : West Bengal Youth Congress workers on Saturday showed BJP President Amit Shah black flags as he stepped outside the airport here ahead of his high-voltage rally in the city.
A group of bike-borne Youth Congress workers waved the black flags before Shah's convoy outside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport and shouted slogans against him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before the police could remove them from the spot.
Some Congress activists also claimed that there was a nexus between the BJP and West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress and raised slogans like "Modi-Didi bhai bhai".
Ahead of Shah's rally in central Kolkata's Mayo Road, Trinamool Congress supporters observed Condemnation Day in parts of the state to raise its pitch against the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
Reacting to the TMC protest, BJP leader and Union Minister Babul Supriyo accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party of destroying the state's culture and the future of Bengal's youth.
"Politics is fine but they (Trinamool Congress) are turning it into an ugly spat. Trinamool has further worsened the situation in Bengal in the name of 'Poriborton' (change) from the 34 years of Left rule.
"This should not continue. The massive turnout in today's rally shows that the youth of Bengal are eagerly waiting for the message of Amit Shahji," said Supriyo, who came to the city to attend Saturday's rally.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
