TMC writes to EC, seeks strict action against BJP leaders for inflammatory remarks

The TMC on Monday urged theElection Commission to take strict action against BJP leaderswho allegedly made inflammatory remarks over the Cooch Beharfiring incident that claimed the lives of “four unarmedcivilians”, shortly before the poll panel barred party supremoMamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours.

In a letter to West Bengal Chief Electoral OfficerAriz Aftab, the party said several BJP leaders, includingparty state Dilip Ghosh, were “instigating” violence withtheir warnings of more Cooch Behar-like episodes.

Amid the polling for the fourth phase of assemblyelections on Saturday, four persons were killed in Sitalkuchiarea of Cooch Behar when CISF personnel opened fire allegedlyafter coming under attack from locals who had “attempted tosnatch their rifles”.

Citing the first instance, the letter said, “On April11, 2021, at a rally in Baranagar, Dilip Ghosh said peoplehave seen what happened at Sitalkuchi and warned that ifanyone oversteps boundary, the incident of Sitalkuchi will berepeated. An official complaint has already been lodged withthe CEO.” The letter, signed by TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay andDerek OBrien, also has mention of similar remarks made by BJPleaders Rahul Sinha and Sayantan Basu.

It also attached a screenshot of a tweet by BJP vice-president Arjun Singh and said that the saffron party leaderhad tried to “spread misinformation” by allegedly sharing aphotograph of a CISF personnel injured in a langur attack inJharkhand as a picture taken in Sitalkuchi.

The tweet was also reposted by saffron partyheavyweight Suvendu Adhikari.

“The top brass of the BJP has been actively condoningthe murder and brazenly suggesting that more innocent livesshould have been lost at the hands of central armed policeforces,” the TMC said.

The party demanded that “appropriate legal action,including criminal proceedings, be taken against Ghosh, Sinha,Basu and others for their inflammatory statements”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)