Overview
- Party-run bookstalls from Kolkata to northern and southern districts were dismantled, vandalised or threatened during Durga Puja, and the CPI(M) says workers were injured in at least one scuffle in Islampur.
- The CPI(M) filed multiple police complaints and sought court relief but the Calcutta High Court refused to intervene on the grounds that required police or municipal permissions had not been granted.
- Most alleged attackers remain unidentified and arrests are limited, while some state BJP leaders have publicly condemned vandalism even as the chief minister criticised Left stalls.
- Local Hindu outfits such as the Shri Ram Savbhiman Parishad have openly opposed and in some cases taken credit for driving Left stalls out of specific wards.
- Longstanding Left bookstalls serve as low‑cost hubs for Marxist and progressive literature and the attacks have boosted public solidarity and sales at some stalls, a development that could deepen political polarisation around Durga Puja festivities.