Fresh from its victory in local polls in Chandigarh, BJP today launched a fierce attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee. Taking potshots at the Trinamool Congress chief over her role in the protest against demonetisation, BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh said that Mamata Banerjee had threatened that if the government did not withdraw its demonetisation decision in 3 days, there would be riots in the country.

1. Lashing out at her, Singh said that although riots did not take place across the nation over demonetisation (as Mamata Banerjee had feared might happen), violent clashes had broken out in Dhoolgarh by the TMC minority cell under police protection. He said, "Ever since you have become chief minister, almost 100 communal riots have happened, especially in the areas where BJP's graph has risen."

2. Sidharth Nath Singh added that TMC MP Idris Ali had said in a masjid, along with a shahi imam, that BJP leader Dileep Ghosh should be stoned to death. He further said that despite an FIR having been lodged against the shahi imam, he was still travelling in a red beacon car. Calling this a policy of appeasement, he said that Mamata Banerjee had travelled to UP and Bihar over demonetisation, but was silent on the communal clashes in Bengal. Singh demanded that Mamata break her silence and speak up on the incidents of violence in her state.

3. Singh said that Mamata was "rattled" post November 8 as all the black money which she has earned through Saradha and Narda scams had become useless. "She is speaking against demonetisation because her black money dealings have been shut down", Singh added.

4. Taking swipes against both Mamata Banerjee and Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, Siddarth said, "They say that farmers are poor. If that is the case, I want to ask how come there is Rs 12,000 crore in the Jan Dhan accounts in UP and Rs 10,000 crore in Jan Dhan accounts in Bengal. They should enlighten us as to how this happened."

5. The BJP national secretary also hit out at the media and those who had jumped on to the award wapsi bandwagon. He said imagine if this had happened in a BJP-ruled state. "Where is the award wapsi gang? Why is this gang silent now? And as far as the media is concerned, I want to know whether it is okay to highlight the Dadri case, but not these incidents. He further said that the BJP was very soon going to send a parliamentary delegation to Howrah and the party's state unit had been asked to move the state's human rights panel.

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