'Eggs, not bombs': BJP minister downplays incident as mob attacks Mahua Moitra

Small groups of people hurling eggs is infinitely better than hurling bombs, suggested West Bengal minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, as he downplayed a video streamed on Facebook by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, who alleged that a meeting with party workers in her Nadia constituency was attacked by BJP supporters.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya distanced himself from the incident, saying that, according to his information, the attackers were a section of TMC workers themselves. Moitra, however, pointed to BJP flags in the hands of some of the alleged miscreants.

Moitra said she was attending an organisational meeting at the TMC party office along National Highway 34 in Kaliganj when a group of protesters gathered outside.

She alleged that the demonstrators, whom she identified as BJP supporters, waved black flags and shouted slogans such as "Mahua Moitra Go Back" and "Mahua Moitra Hai Hai". During a Facebook Live broadcast, she said, "This is the state of law and order here. BJP supporters have gathered and surrounded us. I was attacked through the window. Yet the police are just standing there watching. No action is being taken to disperse the crowd."

Moitra claimed she was also hit by an egg during the incident and alleged that local police officers present at the scene failed to intervene effectively. According to her, central security personnel later arrived, although the protesters continued to create a ruckus outside the party office.

The Trinamool MP said she refused to leave despite the disturbances. "This is my constituency. I am an elected representative. I will not leave because of four BJP goons. The police's job is to disperse the crowd, not to put me in a car and send me away," she said.

The livestream showed a steady barrage of eggs smashing against the building's walls and glass windows as protesters chanted slogans outside. "Look at the sheer anarchy prevailing in Bengal; let the entire state, the entire nation witness this," Moitra said.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee also alleged on Wednesday that his family's house had come under attack earlier in the day. Sharing CCTV footage on social media showing a helmeted motorcyclist stopping briefly to throw stones at the windowpanes before fleeing, he wrote on X: "This is not merely a breakdown of law and order; it is an act of institutionalised violence… Where was the police? Under whose orders did this miscreant dare to carry out the attack and escape?"

Incidents of alleged attacks by BJP supporters on TMC leaders and party offices have become frequent since the Assembly election results were declared, prompting a petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking protection.

However, as Arjun Singh remarked sarcastically, there are no penal provisions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita specifically dealing with the throwing of eggs.

No mob is likely to buy eggs merely to smash them against houses, cars or TMC leaders without organisation or funding, a TMC leader argued. It should therefore be relatively easy for the police to identify who is supplying the eggs and financing such protests. Yet, he alleged, the police have remained silent onlookers in most cases, suggesting they have been instructed to look the other way.

TMC leaders also pointed out that many of the egg-throwing incidents have been captured on video, making the alleged perpetrators easily identifiable. Despite this, they alleged, police action has remained conspicuously absent.