BJP team targets Mamata Banerjee government in its report to Rajnath Singh

Terming as "precarious" the law and order situation in West Bengal, a BJP team on Friday handed over a report to Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the ground scenario in the state in the wake of the violent attacks on party workers and demanded urgent measures to rectify it.

Targeting the Mamata Banerjee government, the five-member team alleged that the violence could be "state sponsored" and that the border area with Bangladesh is the new home for Islamic fundamentalist groups, who are being "patronised" by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government for votebank politics.

The BJP team led by party vice presidents and MPs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and SS Ahluwalia, which had been sent by party president Rajnath Singh to assess the ground situation in West Bengal after repeated incidents of violent attacks on BJP workers allegedly by ruling TMC cadres, had visited the state on May 31 to obtain first-hand information.

Naqvi accused TMC government of "providing protection to the goons and those involved in violence against BJP workers" "We will not be mute spectators to such incidents," he said.

Linking the violence against its cadres to BJP's electoral performance in the state, he claimed the TMC, Left and Congress were rattled by its growth. "We apprised Rajnath Singh of the prevailing situation there and asked him to take immediate steps to ensure law and order in the state," Naqvi told reporters after meeting the Home Minister.

He said, "We have appealed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh that he should take immediate measures in view of the repeated violent incidents in the state.... We have asked the Home Minister to seek a ground report on the situation in West Bengal from the state Governor and take immediate appropriate measures." Naqvi said the response of the state government has not been proper.

"It seems the incidents are state government sponsored as it is giving protection to goons involved in violent incidents against BJP workers and supporters. The law and order situation in the state is precarious under the Trinamool Congress government," he alleged.

On the situation in border areas, the report said, "These attacks are not just a fight between two political parties but are part of a larger design to spread a reign of terror in the region through a nexus of Islamic groups, smuggling mafia, terror elements and TMC goons," it said.

The delegation, which included BJP MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Babul Supriyo, besides Siddharth Nath Singh, has made a series of suggestions to the government including giving a directive to the state government for bringing to book the perpetrators of violence in Sandeshkali and also for appropriate measures for maintaining law and order and communal harmony.