The Opposition parties in Bengal have hit out at the ruling Trinamool Congress for allowing the communal riot-like situation in North 24 Parganas to continue, with fears of the issue snowballing into a major crisis haunting everyone.
Attacking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for ignoring the situation Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said the Trinamool and the BJP were playing “fixed matches” with each feeding the vote bank aspiration of the other by triggering communal tension.
Chowdhury an MP from Behrampore in Murshidabad district said, “The communal situation was alien in Bengal but today it has reached alarming points because of lack of governance. It is clear that the TMC and BJP are playing fixed matches feeding each other’s vote bank. Their camaraderie can be understood from the way the BJP Government let off Trinamoool in Saradha and Narada scams as a result of which Mamata Banerjee could win the Assembly elections.”
The CPI(M) on the other hand upped the ante as its MP Mohd Salim said, “It is peculiar to see a Government sitting idle while communal tension is going on in 8-9 places. The communal flare-up is the result of a political game plan of the two parties: Trinamool and BJP.” Communal tension was high in Naihati area of North 24 Parganas where several houses were looted and many people were injured over the past one week when two communities clashed over Muharram and immersion procession of Goddess Durga.
On the other hand BJP leader Siddharthnath Singh accused CM of playing vote bank politics by appeasing a particular community. Even the courts accused her Government of practicing vote bank appeasement politics, Singh said adding as she was scared of losing her core voters before 2019 to the BJP she was craftily engineering a communal situation and silently supporting the rioters from minority community to gain votes.
The police did not allow State Opposition leader Abdul Mannan and CPI(M) legislature Party leader Sujan Chakrabarty to enter Naihati on Sunday. Meanwhile IG law and Order Anuj Sharma said the situations were under control.