Malda violence: BJP to meet President, accuses Mamata of vote bank' politics

New Delhi: BJP on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of pursuing "vote bank" politics after its 'fact-finding' team was not allowed to visit the violence-hit Kaliachak and said a party delegation will meet the President in this regard.

The decision to not let the three-member BJP team go there was a "text book example" of Banerjee's vote bank politics, BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh alleged, claiming that the "dictatorial" state government had compassion for criminals but it showed guns to nationalists.

Rejecting the government's explanation for the violence in Malda district on January 3, he said, the purpose behind it was to destroy the records, which were allegedly related to a fake currency racket, kept in a police station.

"We will meet the Home Minister to seek an appropriate enquiry and also meet the President due to the seriousness of the situation," Singh told a press conference here.

A mob of over 1 lakh people, he said, assembled by "stoking communal passion" but the state government took no action while provocative leaflets were distributed.

The crowd was reportedly protesting against the allegedly blasphemous remarks made by a Hindutva leader before it turned violence.

Singh, who is also party's co-incharge of the poll-bound state, said the protest was held more than a month after those "condemnable" remarks were made, claiming that it was not a spontaneous event but a planned action.

He posed five questions to Banerjee related to the incident as he claimed that Malda had become a major hub of fake-currency racket and opium smuggling but the Trinamool Congress government was not taking any action due to its vote bank politics.

"You have taken no action despite knowing it. 80 per cent of fake currency passes through Malda. Opium is produced there and smuggled to Bangladesh. Who do you want to save?" he said, attacking the Chief Minister.

NIA has arrested over 15 people across the country and all of them are connected to the fake-currency racket linked to Malda, he said, adding that the agency was about to "bust" it.

"Under the cover of communalism, it (violence) was a conspiracy to burn records kept in the police station," he alleged.