PM Modi alleged that playing politics over dead bodies was an old habit of Mamate Banerjee's.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of conspiring to use the bodies of the victims of last week's Cooch Behar firing to consolidate her vote bank. He referred to a reported audio clip doing the rounds in which she is allegedly heard planning to take out a rally of the bodies.
The Trinamool had earlier claimed that the BJP had distorted the content of the audio clip to spread disinformation amid the ongoing state Assembly election.
Four people were killed in firing by security forces on April 10 after violence broke out at a polling booth at Sitakulchi in Cooch Behar district when voting was going on in the fourth of the eight-phase Bengal election.
Speaking in Asansol today, PM Modi said the "audio tape had made it clear that Ms Banerjee was playing politics".
"What happened in Cooch Behar...you must have heard the audio tape. The audio makes it clear how after the painful deaths of five people, Didi is playing politics...A Cooch Behar TMC politician is heard being advised to take out a rally with dead people," the Prime Minister said at a rally.
"To what extent will you go for vote bank politics, Didi? The truth is that Didi thought about her political advantage even through the dead people. Playing politics over dead bodies is an old habit of hers," he said.
A BJP delegation on Sunday, meanwhile, urged the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, Ariz Aftab, to take note of the audio clip saying "such a move could lead to more tension" in the state amid the elections, PTI reported.
Senior BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, who led the delegation to the CEO office here, told reporters he had apprised Mr Aftab of the conversation.