Rebel Trinamool faction MP Basunia, MLA Sangeeta Roy face protests on return to Sitai

KOLKATA: Jagadishchandra Basunia, Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) MP from Cooch Behar in West Bengal, and his wife Sangeeta Roy, a Trinamool Congress MLA from Sitai, faced protests by locals soon after they reached their residence at Sitai market on Sunday amid heavy police security.

Hours after the protest, a Trinamool Congress block party office near Basunia’s residence was gutted in a fire early on Sunday. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed.

Basunia, one of the 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs who joined the NCPI in support of the BJP-led NDA in Parliament, and his wife had been forced to leave their Sitai residence around 2 am on August 11 following a protest by local residents.

According to local sources, Basunia and Sangeeta returned to Sitai around 5 am on Sunday. Protesters, including BJP workers and local residents, rushed to their residence after learning about their arrival.

The protesters alleged that Basunia had amassed crores of rupees through corrupt practices during the 15-year Trinamool Congress rule. They also alleged that he owns a rice mill and several other business establishments.

They accused him of being an opportunist and alleged that he was earlier with FB and the Trinamool Congress and was now trying to join the BJP.

In the August 11 incident, Basunia and his wife had returned to Sitai after three months, but protesters prevented them from entering their house and demanded that they leave. They eventually left for Cooch Behar town around 2 am as the situation escalated.

The protesters had also alleged that the MP and MLA had not been seen in their respective constituencies for a long time. Basunia had been in Delhi for the past three months, while his wife was not seen in Sitai after the Bengal Assembly election results were announced on May 4, they alleged.

Sangeeta was in Kolkata for the treatment of their son since May, according to sources. The couple were last seen at a district administrative meeting in Cooch Behar in the first week of May.

Despite strong security arrangements by the district police administration, protesters without party flags or banners gathered outside their residence at Sitai market, cordoned off the area and shouted slogans demanding that the couple leave.

With more police personnel deployed, the protest intensified further.

“I had gone to take my several necessary documents lying at my residence and stock of the law and order situation in the Setai area. But a group of people created trouble there,” the MP had reacted while speaking to media.

I’ve kept the allegations attributed to the protesters rather than presenting them as established facts, and I have not added any information beyond the supplied copy.