Bulldozer action at Abhishek Banerjee’s Kalighat home

Banerjee declared on social media that bulldozers could not silence his voice or break his resolve against “Bangla Birodhis” until his last breath.

Civic workers from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), backed by Kolkata Police, launched the Thursday morning drive to clear alleged footpath encroachments near the Diamond Harbour MP’s house.

Bulldozers first razed a makeshift bamboo shed that previously sheltered security personnel during Banerjee’s Z-plus cover under his aunt Mamata Banerjee’s former administration.

Officials subsequently tore down an encroaching iron gate and a concrete-and-iron Trinamool Congress Martyrs’ Memorial during the sweep.

Trinamool workers had initially started dismantling the temporary bamboo structure on Wednesday evening, leaving the job unfinished until civic crews arrived with heavy machinery the next morning.

The shed sparked local controversy after a large crowd gathered beneath it during the intervening night of November 6 and 7 to celebrate Banerjee’s birthday.

Local residents soon objected to the structure, complaining that the unauthorized shed obstructed pedestrian movement along the busy Kalighat footpath.

Thursday’s civic action occurred just one day after Banerjee publicly accused the Kolkata Police of placing his residence under constant surveillance and snooping on him.

Shortly after posting his surveillance allegations online on Wednesday, party workers began removing the bamboo shed before the KMC expanded the demolition drive.

Banerjee’s defiant response frames the civic demolition as the latest flashpoint in his ongoing political confrontation with the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party administration.