Leader of Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari led a rally of BJP activists and supporters to Bidhannagar police commissionerate here on Monday demanding the arrest of culprits involved in vandalising the party’s municipal poll office in the area. He also claimed that BJP candidates were not being allowed to campaign for the civic polls in Bidhannagar, with posters and banners of the party having been torn down by workers of the ruling TMC.

“It has been eight days since the vandalism took place, but none of the accused has been arrested,” Adhikari said, alleging that police are under pressure from the ruling party not to act against the perpetrators.

The Bidhannagar Police, which put up barricades on the roads leading to the commissionerate headquarters, stopped the rally from reaching there.

Adhikari then sat on the road seeking immediate arrest of those who had vandalised the BJP office. He also sought assurance of a free and fair election to Bidhannagar municipal corporation, which is scheduled to be held on February 12 along with that of Asansol, Siliguri and Chandannagar.

The Nandigram MLA alleged that the “state election commissioner has become a cohort of the TMC and has turned his office into a sister organisation of the ruling party.

He said that the BJP filed a petition before the Calcutta High Court on Monday seeking central force deployment for Bidhannagar civic polls.

“We hope that the court hearing on our prayer will be held on February 9,” he said.

Contending that an emergency-like situation prevailed in the state, the Nandigram MLA said that Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was right in his assertion that Bengal has become a “gas chamber of democracy”.