BJP warns Bengal cops: ‘We’ll send you to Bihar’

A day after warning of more Shitalkuchi-style killings in the remaining phases of the Assembly election in West Bengal, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh threatened to send state police personnel to neighbouring Bihar if they disagreed with the views of the saffron party.

On Monday the Midnapore BJP MP, undeterred by complaints of intimidation and the TMC’s demand for a ban on him for his threat of repeating the Shitalkuchi killings, told the police at a party rally at Suti in Murshidabad: “Don’t try to threaten the BJP. Remember, we are coming to power, and you will have to serve under our feet. If you do not agree with us, go to Bihar, buy land and live there. I will arrange it for you.”

He also claimed: “We will bring back your lost pride and glory like the Ashoka symbol and independence, like the Uttar

Pradesh police, so that no more Central paramilitary forces will be needed to combat law and order situations during elections.”

In the evening Mr Ghosh, however, swung into damage control mode on his threat to repeat the Shitalkuchi-style killings. He said: “We do not want a repetition of the Shitalkuchi incident, where TMC miscreants tried to loot EVMs and the guns of Central forces, instigated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. We demand that she be punished.”At another BJP rally at Farakka, Mr Ghosh tried hard to woo Muslims, saying: “The Congress always won here. Though the situation is changing now, there is no change in the condition of poor Muslims. Murshidabad is one of the most backward districts in India. Muslims were used as a vote bank here. While 70 per cent of Muslims remained backward, the youth of the community are either implicated in illegal activities like terrorism or are forced to work as migrant workers in other states. In comparison, Muslims are safe and living better in UP and Gujarat under the BJP.” State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said at Bhagabangola: “Bengal is not the land of the fathers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. It is our Bengal. It is the land of Hindus and Muslims. We are safe under the constitutional rights of India. We won’t allow the CAA, NRC.”