BJP will not allow Babri Masjid in Bengal: Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and Aam Janata Unnayan Party chief Humayun Kabir are "two of a kind", and the BJP will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built in Bengal if it wins the State polls.
At a poll rally in West Bengal's coal mine belt of Raniganj in Paschim Bardhaman district, Shah accused Banerjee of opposing the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and drew parallels with Kabir's initiative to build a mosque in Murshidabad's Beldanga modelled on the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Kabir, an MLA from Murshidabad's Bharatpur, who has now formed his own party and is seeking re-election, was suspended from the TMC in December last year after he proposed the construction of a Babri-like mosque.
"The Congress, Mamata Banerjee's TMC and other parties such as the DMK, Samajwadi Party, and Bahujan Samaj Party supported keeping Ram Lalla under a tent for 550 years.
"After receiving an overwhelming mandate from people in 2019, Modiji built the Ram temple in Ayodhya, which leaders like Banerjee opposed. Now, Humayun Kabir, who is cast in the same mould as Mamata Banerjee, wants to build Babri Masjid in Bengal," the former BJP chief said.
The BJP will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built in this State after it wins the upcoming polls, Shah asserted.
His remarks are seen as the BJP's attempt at blunting the TMC's offensive over a video in which Kabir was purportedly heard saying he was in touch with BJP leaders to unseat Banerjee from power and receiving Rs 200 crore as an advance for a Rs 1,000-crore deal to split the minority votes.
Latching on to the purported remarks in the video, the veracity of which PTI could not independently verify, Banerjee alleged on Sunday that the BJP has "struck a Rs 1,000-crore deal" with Kabir to defeat the TMC.
Addressing poll rallies in Mayureshwar and Khayrasole areas of Birbhum district earlier on Monday, Shah said the people of Bengal will reply to bombs and bullets with votes, and pledged the BJP would "hang the syndicate and cut money promoters upside down to make them straight" once the voters "bid adieu to the TMC Government".
