BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari urges people to boycott Bengal government's 'Durga Puja Carnival'

Kolkata: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday urged the people of West Bengal to boycott the 'Durga Puja Carnival' organised by the TMC government as a mark of protest and to show solidarity with the junior doctors' agitation over the RG Kar rape-murder case.

Adhikari also announced that a rally in the city, without any party flags, "will be organised on Tuesday evening" to protest the ongoing attacks on women in the state.

"As per Hindu ritual, there is no mention of any form of carnival during Durga Puja. We don't know where the state government discovered this idea. However, we feel that this carnival should be boycotted as a mark of protest and in solidarity with the junior doctors' agitation," he told reporters. The carnival is scheduled on Wednesday.

Since 2016, the state government has been holding the carnival on Red Road to mark the culmination of Bengal's biggest festival.

The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly said the rally would be held from College Square to Esplanade. "It will be without any party flags, and we request people to join us as it is being organised for the safety and security of women in the state," he said.

The 'fast-unto-death' by junior doctors in West Bengal to press for their demands in the wake of the RG Kar hospital incident entered its 10th day on Monday, even as the health condition of two more medics deteriorated, one of whom has been hospitalised, officials said.

Currently, seven doctors are on a 'fast-unto-death,' including a junior medic from the North Bengal Medical College's ENT department, who joined the strike this afternoon.

The hunger strike, which began on October 5, followed nearly 50 days of 'cease work' in two phases. Their agitation started after an on-duty postgraduate trainee was raped and murdered inside the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.