'Bengal hotbed of political killings': BJP hits back at Mamata

The BJP on Thursday hit back at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for terming the saffron party a "militant organisation", and said that she should resign from the post as the state has become a "hotbed of political killings".

Senior BJP leaders accused the Trinamool Congress supremo of being a "champion of appeasement politics", and her party a "heaven for anarchists".

BJP's General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also the party's in-charge in West Bengal, said, "Mamata (Banerjee) is the champion of appeasement politics and there is total anarchy and lawlessness in the state under her rule."

Who is Mamata Banerjee to give the BJP a "character certificate", he asked and said that the people of the state will "teach her a lesson" in the next election.

"Rather than casting aspersions, she should look at the fact that today the state has become a hotbed of political killings. She should step down on moral grounds," Vijayvargiya said.

He also said the language being used by Banerjee for her political opponents does not suit a person who holds a constitutional post.

Echoing similar sentiments, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi alleged that Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has become a "heaven for anarchists."

"As a result there is no law and order in the state. It is in complete chaos. So first get your house in order then talk about others," he said.

The TMC supremo today called the BJP a "militant organisation," and alleged that it is engaged in dividing people along religious lines, while daring it to attack her party.

Banerjee, a known critic of the saffron party, also alleged that the BJP is manipulating EVMs to increase its vote share in the state and urged her party workers to prepare for the next Lok Sabha poll as the entire country is looking forward to it.

"We are not a militant organisation like the BJP. They are arrogant and intolerant. They are religiously biased. They don't like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs - they are even differentiating between the upper caste and the lower caste Hindus," she said at the extended core committee meeting of TMC.

PTI