New Delhi: West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party president Dilip Ghosh has said that his party may conduct “direct encounters” against members of the Trinamool Congress.

Addressing party workers during a protest at Jalpaiguri district in north Bengal yesterday, Ghosh claimed some TMC leaders and workers were flexing their muscles and threatening BJP workers.

“Either they will go to jail or there will be direct encounters. We are counting the bullets which killed our workers,” the BJP leader said.

“Remember Gabbar Singh’s dialogue? How many bullets are in this gun,” Ghosh continued, according to NDTV, with his palm clenched in the shape of a pistol. “The bullets will be counted and given…. And corpses will be counted too.”

He also said the police would not be able to stop the BJP and its workers if they choose to “retaliate”.

“We have seen many gundas. There is a limit to tolerance. We have not given any bond that we will offer them (TMC) rasogolla even if they attack us. There will be retaliation,” Ghosh said.

TMC leader and minister Rabindra Nath Ghosh said that the state BJP chief has given a threat to kill and criminal cases should be filed against him.

“He (Ghosh) is issuing threats repeatedly. It is against the law. Criminal cases should be filed against him and he should be put in jail,” the TMC leader said.

Official sources told PTI the police have initiated a suo motu case against Dilip Ghosh, BJP Jalpaiguri district secretary Debasish Chakrabarty and six other party leaders. They were booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the sources said.

This is not the first time that the BJP state president has made threats or used intemperate language against TMC leadership. Two years ago, Ghosh grabbed headlines by saying the the BJP could have had chief minister Mamata Banerjee “dragged by her hair”. Ghosh later had to apologise. “Never did I tried to hurt feelings of any person or intended to make any personal attack against anyone. Whatever I said was out of emotion. I heard that some TMC leaders are shocked about my choice of words against the CM. If our CM feels insulted with the words I used, I am extremely sorry,” Ghosh said in the state assembly.

That same year, Ghosh once again threatened to attack TMC leaders inside their houses and break their necks with bare hands, using RSS training.

Speaking at a protest meeting in his constituency Kharagpur Sadar of West Midnapore district against the alleged attacks on party cadres by Trinamool activists, Ghosh had said, ““We have 8,000 workers in Kharagpur. Trinamool has got 34,000 votes. Now if we beat them up, even their fathers can’t save them.” He further threatened, “We can very well indulge in violence if we are attacked. Half of the people here are trained by RSS (Rashhtriya Swayamsevak Sangh). Breaking the neck with bare hands is no big deal for us.”

(With PTI inputs)