BJP sends 3 MPs to Bengal following communal clashes

Raising clamour against the Mamata Banerjee government for failing to discharge its duties and stop the communal tension in West Bengal, the BJP has decided to send a team of three MPs to Basirhat, the epicentre of the recent clashes that have broken out.

BJP sources said that party president Amit Shah has constituted a team comprising Rajya Sabha MP Om Prakash Mathur and Lok Sabha members Meenakshi Lekhi and Dr Satyapal Singh, who will soon visit the affected area and submit a report to Shah on the issue. BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is already in West Bengal, will join the team in Basirhat.

Wary of facing the Opposition's attack on various fronts like farmers' death, face-off with China, attacks by cow vigilantes and traders' agitation on the GST rollout, the BJP is expected to launch a counter-attack by raising the matter of increasing incidences of communal conflagrations in West Bengal in the Monsoon session of the Parliament, slated to start from July 17.

Tension is already on a threshold between the Centre and the West Bengal government with Mamata referring to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi as behaving like "like a block president of the BJP."

Union home minister Rajnath Singh also took stock of the situation in Basirhat in a meeting called to review the internal security. A day ago Singh had spoken to both Chief Minister and Governor. The Home Ministry has already dispatched 300 companies (3000 personnel) of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to help State government defuse the situation.