Rebel BJP leader Sudip Roy Barman took out a rally in Agartala on Friday against crimes against women in Tripura, which was joined by thousands of people.
Speaking at a large gathering, Barman said that his programme was completely apolitical and not for any other purpose but to protest against crime against women.
A large rally was taken out on Thursday by a Mahila BJP leader Soma Majumder to protest against Barman. A large number of BJP Mahila Morcha members were seen taking part in it.
Majumder had been tied to a pole and assaulted by a group of men in 2014 and the BJP Mahila Morcha condemned Barman, who was in the Congress at the time, for allegedly advising her to make peace with her tormentors.
She had later joined the BJP and a local court had sentenced seven people, including three women to rigorous imprisonment in connection with the case.
Denying the charges against him, Barman said they were not correct. "I had in fact collected the video of the assault of the woman and gave it to a local TV channel for telecasting. I had also sent the then president of state Mahila Congress for helping her.
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Barman, who had been a minister in the Biplab Deb cabinet, claimed he could have gathered many BJP MLAs to join in the rally but did not do so because it could have sent a wrong message.
I organized this programme only to protest against crime against women and nothing else. This is completely an apolitical programme and such programmes will be organized again, he said.
Barman told the gathering that crimes against women like rape, molestation, dowry deaths and abuse have become a matter of concern in the country and Tripura is not free from the menace.
Quoting the data of the National Crime Records Bureau, he said in the last 16 years 4,16,000 were raped in the country and it is important to alert all sections of the people in the state to end the evil.
State BJP Mahila Morcha president Papia Dutta had on Thursday alleged that the highest incidence of crime against women in the state was witnessed during the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti regime from 1988 to 1993. Barman was a Youth Congress leader t the time.
Barman was dropped from the cabinet of Biplab Deb in May last year for "anti-party activities".