Calcutta, Nov 6: The Opposition in West Bengal has made its first strike against Budhhadev Bhattacharya as he takes charge as the new head of the state government.While all the opposition parties boycotted the swearing-in ceremony held at Raj Bhavan, the Trinamool Congress organised a dharna at the Esplanade area. The dharna was attended by those ousted from their villages, allegedly by the CPI(M) goons.The Congress also did not sit idle. Hundreds of its members and supporters courted arrest at various places in the city, including the area in front of Raj Bhavan. The police had to resort to mild lathi charge to disperse the crowd there.The tricky part - so far as invitation to the Congress was concerned - was that while Congress Legislature Party leader Atish Sinha, and party chief whip Abdul Mannan claimed to have not received any invitation, CLP deputy leader Saugata Roy and MLA Tapas Roy were invited but chose not to attend the swearing-in ceremony.The BJP - which yesterday said it would accept the invitation of attending the ceremony - backtracked and chose not to attend the function. The party took this decision in a meeting of the state secretariat today. ``Earlier, we thought we would attend it but today, we came to the conclusion that it would mean not respecting those TMC-BJP supporters who were killed by CPI(M) goons when Bhattacharya was Home Minister,'' party senior vice-president Muzaffar Khan said to The Indian Express.The Trinamool said it would intensify its agitation against Bhattacharya in the near future. ``As Home Minister, Bhattacharya had failed to contain violence in the state,'' chairman of Trinamool policy-making body Pankaj Banerjee said, adding: ``With him at the top, there will be total disaster.''
