Bengal MP Sunil Mondal, who joined BJP, faces protests in Kolkata
Kolkata: BJP leader and MP Sunil Mondal, who had switched over from the TMC last week, on Saturday faced protests by the workers of the ruling party in West Bengal when he was going to an office of the saffron camp here.
The incident happened when Mondal was on his way to the BJP party office at Hastings, police said.
"Some TMC activists, who were participating in a programme there, blocked his car. They sat on the road to stop him from going to our office. They also banged the window panes, pelted his vehicle with stones," BJP MP Arjun Singh alleged.
This led to a scuffle between the BJP activists who were present there and the TMC workers, he said. Police reached the spot and ensured the safe passage of Mondal's car, a senior officer said.
"This only shows the true colour of the TMC. They don't believe any democratic norm. Is this a way to treat a people's representative?" Mondal asked.
Along with Suvendu Adhikari and five TMC MLAs, Mondal had joined the BJP at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Midnapore on December 19.
Mondal was elected as TMC MP from Purba Bardhaman. The TMC said the incident was a reflection of people's anger against the turncoats.
"It was people's anger against the turncoats and a spontaneous protest," TMC MP Saugata Roy said.
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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.
