BJP bid for minority support ends in blows

KOLKATA: Pandemonium broke out at the first state-level convention of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Himayat Committee on Saturday, ostensibly organised to garner the minority community''s support for BJP in the run-up to the remaining polls.
Following demonstrations at the Great Eastern Hotel venue, the organisers were forced to call off the programme about 45 minutes after it began.
In all, 31 persons were arrested. Later, the speakers were escorted to a safer place by the police.
The incident led the organisers, mostly BJP members, to accuse the CPM-Congress of conspiring to spoil the meeting. BJP''s Muzaffar Khan charged them with using muscle power to mar the programme.
Tension ran high right from the start with members of some Muslim bodies raising slogans against the organisers.
Activists of the All India Minority Forum demonstrated outside the hotel against the "self-proclaimed" Muslim intellectuals who took part in the programme.
Some of the organisers alleged that the CPM''s Kolkata district unit had done everything to make sure the convention fell through. A leading maulana was even "advised" by the police not to attend the meeting.
The organisers were caught unawares when some of the invitees began posing apparently embarrassing questions to the speakers, including All-India Haj Committee chairman Tanvir Ahmed.
"This was nothing but a BJP poll campaign," they alleged. Some of the invitees were seen tearing leaflets suggesting Muslim support for Vajpayee.
Heated arguments began between the groups, with some of them coming to blows. Realising the situation was going out of control, the organisers called off the programme.