Several workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as police personnel were injured in a clash in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Monday, PTI reported. The incident took place in Basirhat town, about 60 km from capital Kolkata, after a protest against the state government’s decision banning the party from organising public rallies turned violent.

Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court refusing to list the BJP’s petition for an urgent hearing during the winter break. The party’s plea had challenged the Calcutta High Court’s decision prohibiting it from holding public rallies in the state. The party has now been organising “law-violation programmes” in various parts of the state to protest against the state government’s decision to prohibit its proposed rallies.

The police said they had to resort to baton charge to disperse the crowd after BJP workers threw stones at them. The police claim they had initially tried to pacify the party supporters and had put up barricades to restrain them from violence, Times Now reported.

West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh, who was leading the protest, alleged that outsiders, and not party workers, had thrown the stones at the police. “We were conducting our ‘law-violation programme’ peacefully, but the police started unprovoked baton charge,” Ghosh said. “Those who have pelted stones are outsiders, they have nothing to do with the BJP.”

Trinamool Congress leader Jyotipriyo Mullick claimed that the BJP was intentionally trying to stir up violence. Calling for his arrest, Mullick accused Ghosh of instigating violence.