Kolkata:
West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan will visit Presidency University in Kolkata today, two days after a mob stormed the campus and used spears and other weapons to attack students and property. Though the Trinamool has denied any links to that violence, a local councillor from the party was filmed at the entrance as the mob scaled the gate in an attempt to break into the university.
Trinamool Councillor Partha Basu is seen on camera holding on to the bars of the massive gate. Mr Basu has promised to "resign this instant" if it is proven that he entered the campus. He claims that Left student activists threw stones at a Trinamool rally, of which he was a part, as it was passing the university.
Presidency students say a group of at least 100 people carrying Trinamool flags struck students and teachers while the police refused to intervene, claiming that they "had no orders from above".
A young girl said women students were threatened by the trespassers that they would be raped.
"They started beating up whichever students they found, they chased girls, and made obscene remarks. The four policemen here took no action. The staff went down to protect students," said the university's Vice Chancellor Malabika Sarkar to NDTV.
Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien told NDTV that the Trinamool has no student wing at Presidency, and that the violence was planned by the Left.
Ms Banerjee's party has been on a vicious offensive in Bengal since Tuesday, when she was heckled in Delhi by student activists affiliated to the Left. They were protesting against the death of a 22-year-old student in police custody, denounced by Ms Banerjee as "a petty matter". (
Read: Delhi not safe, says Mamata)
On Thursday, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat wrote to the President requesting his intervention after Governor Narayanan said that the attack Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee encountered in Delhi was a "shocking pre-meditated assault." Mr Karat said these remarks "do not behove a person occupying a constitutional post." (
Read the full letter)