BJP burn tyres at Dharmatala in protest of attack on Khagen Murmu & Shankar Ghosh

Amid the lingering haze of North Bengal's flood-ravaged despair, where swollen rivers and landslides have claimed over 28 lives and shattered communities in Jalpaiguri's Dooars, a fresh inferno of political rage erupted in Kolkata's heart today afternoon, as the BJP's Scheduled Caste (SC) Morcha spearheaded a fiery protest at Dharmatala, torching tires in a billowing display of defiance against the brutal mob attack on party MP Khagen Murmu and MLA Shankar Ghosh the previous day—transforming the bustling Esplanade crossroads into a cauldron of chants, placards, and acrid smoke that choked the afternoon air, drawing hundreds of saffron-clad workers united in accusations of TMC-orchestrated "goonda raj" amid the humanitarian crisis. Murmu, the tribal voice from Malda Uttar, lay in Siliguri's ICU with a fractured orbital bone from stones hurled by an alleged 500-strong crowd wielding sticks and shoes, while Ghosh nursed bruises from the same ambush during their relief inspection in Nagrakata—a tragedy that prompted Prime Minister Modi's "outright appalling" rebuke and Governor Bose's bedside solace, yet ignited this urban uprising where protesters, faces smeared with soot, decried not just the assault but a systemic failure to shield democracy's foot soldiers in Bengal's beleaguered north.

As flames licked skyward from the pyre of rubber, the SC Morcha's initiative echoed a deeper schism: in a state polarized by polls and perils, even floodwaters can't quench the thirst for accountability, turning grief into gasoline for a movement that vows statewide shutdowns until justice scorches the guilty.The protest ignited a spontaneous swell of BJP faithful converging on Dharmatala—the iconic protest pivot near Park Street's pulse—under the SC Morcha's banner, Volunteers, many from Kolkata's working-class enclaves, hauled tires from nearby godowns, dousing them in kerosene before striking matches that birthed towering plumes of black smoke, halting traffic on AJC Bose Road and drawing honks of solidarity from passing autos.

Eyewitnesses captured the fervor: a young worker from Howrah, his kurta singed at the edges, recounted scrolling through viral videos of Murmu's bloodied face, his voice cracking as he lit the first tire. Police, in riot gear but restrained, formed a cordon, their water cannons on standby yet unused, a nod perhaps to the post-Puja calm shattered by this northern echo, where the mob's Monday melee had already sparked effigy burnings at the party's Muralidhar Sen Lane HQ.North Bengal's nightmare, where the Teesta's torrent buried bridges and homes under October 4's 400mm deluge, set the stage for this southern showdown. For the SC Morcha, often the party's grassroots grindstone, this was sacred ground: Murmu, a two-term tribal titan, embodies their fight against erasure, making his wounds a wound on the community's collective chest. As smoke wreathed the war memorials nearby, the crowd's cadence swelled—slogans slicing the smog, women in saffron stoles leading choruses of "Justice for Khagen Da," their placards scrawled with effigies.

 As dusk crept in, the tires guttered to embers, but the embers of enmity glowed on, a harbinger of harder clashes ahead in Bengal's binary battleground. For the BJP, this tire-torching testament isn't epilogue but exordium: a mobilization machine revving against TMC's turf, where floodwaters wash away homes but unearth electoral edges. In the SC Morcha's marrow, it's more—a mantle for the marginalized, turning Murmu's mauling into a mobilization myth. In the end, Dharmatala's fires flicker as folklore, whispering that in West Bengal's watery woes, protest's pyre preserves the people's unquenched quest for equity.