KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress and BJP clashed sharply Monday over the ongoing violence in Bengal’s Murshidabad district, with TMC accusing protesters of disrupting life to serve what it called the saffron party’s agenda and leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari calling for 2026 assembly elections to be held under President’s rule.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh questioned why waqf protests were being held in Bengal instead of Delhi, saying demonstrations were being hijacked to destabilise the state. “Why should roads in Bengal be blocked? Why life should be disrupted daily?” he said. “This is the trap laid out by BJP and in the name of protests you are falling for it.”
Ghosh said CM Mamata Banerjee had assured that any anti-people provisions in waqf law would not be implemented in Bengal. “Trinamool has opposed waqf in Parliament, outside it, and in SC. Protest a hundred times, but not with violence and arson,” he said.
Accusing a “section of opposition politicians and a section within BSF” of aiding outside elements to stir unrest, Ghosh said: “Who gains by this violence? It helps BJP to target Bengal. It helps them drive their Hindu-Muslim divisive agenda.” CM Banerjee is set to meet community elders in Kolkata on April 16 in an effort to calm tensions.
BJP MLA Adhikari demanded President’s rule, saying violence in Murshidabad showed the state’s “complete breakdown of law and order”. He said: “Police act like cadres of the party in office. Wherever Hindus are in the minority, they are stopped from voting.” BJP state chief and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar visited a camp in Malda, where displaced families are taking shelter.
(With PTI inputs)
