Kolkata: TMC members and including its students leaders held a day-long sit-in outside Jorasanko on Sunday, the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore, to protest the putting up of flex hoardings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s image on top of the picture of the board.

TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay sang songs composed by the Nobel laureate on a stage opposite the main gate, while party activists stood with placards. The TMC leaders in the placards read “won’t accept insult of Tagore by outsiders” and “Omit Shah”. BJP has hurt the sentiments of the people by putting up such hoardings in Santhiniketan and Bolpur, said TMC Minister Sashi Panja said.

BJP was not involved in placing such hoardings and alleged it was the “handiwork of the local Trinamool Congress to defame us ahead of Amit Shah’s visit to Birbhum”, said Pratap Banerjee a BJP leader. He also said “The moment the issue came to our notice; our activists took the initiative to remove the flex hoardings”. He also said the BJP has great respect for Bengal’s cultural icons.