The BJP team complained yesterday to the Centre, which has promised to send officials to Malda to ascertain facts. (Mamata Banerjee - PTI Photo)
Top BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah, will hold rallies this month in West Bengal as the BJP raises the pitch of its attack on the Mamata Banerjee government on the recent mob violence in Kaliachak town of the state's Malda, sources have said.
Senior ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani will address rallies starting next Sunday and Amit Shah will wrap up the BJP attack with a public meeting in Howrah on January 25, sources said.
The BJP in Bengal claims it was denied permission to hold Mr Gadkari's rally in Malda and had to shift the venue to Dinajpur. But the Malda police has denied that. Earlier this week, three BJP lawmakers were stopped from going to Kaliachak by the local administration.
The BJP team complained yesterday to the Centre, which has promised to send officials to Malda to ascertain facts.
The BJP accuses the Mamata Banerjee government of protecting those responsible for the violence on January 3, when a lakh-strong mob of Muslim protesters set fire to a police station and damaged vehicles. They were protesting against comments about the Prophet Mohammad allegedly made by a Hindu right-wing leader in Uttar Pradesh last month.
The BJP alleges that the attackers wanted to burn down crime records at the police station. It has also alleged that members of Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress were part of the mob and has accused the chief minister of minority politics with an eye on state elections, now months away.
30 per cent of Bengal's voters are Muslim and their support played an important role in Mamata Banerjee's stunning victory over the Left five years ago. Malda, which borders Bangladesh, has 51 per cent Muslims.
"There is a secular fabrication which is being destroyed by Trinamool Congress," said the BJP's Sidharth Nath Singh today.
The Trinamool Congress has countered the BJP, saying it is the opposition party that is "communalising" the incident.
The BJP has so far been a minor player in West Bengal but Amit Shah has been beefing the party up in the state and hopes to make an impact in this year's election. In rallies he has challenged Mamata Banerjee that the BJP will end her rule in the state