Congress advances 12-hour Bengal bandh call to August 18

The Congress in West Bengal on Monday advanced their statewide bandh called to protest the ruling Trinamool Congress' "atrocities", by two days to August 18 as the earlier date (August 20) clashed with Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary. According to party insiders, there were requests from many district officials to reschedule the bandh to some other date since several programmes to observe Sadbhavna Divas (Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary) were lined up on August 20.

Yesterday, Congress' state president Adhir Chowdhury had called a 12-hour statewide strike on August 20 to protest the "ongoing terror and violence" by the TMC. Party sources said Chowdhury's call for the bandh on August 20 also did not go down well with senior Congress leaders. "As this (Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary) is a sentimental matter for everybody in the Congress, the choice of date became a concern. And that's why the date was advanced," a party insider said on condition of anonymity.

Citing the recent killing of a girl at Ketugram after a failed rape attempt on her and the murder of a girl student in Burdwan, Chowdhury had alleged "nobody in West Bengal is safe.