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Updated: Nov 29, 2018 23:55 IST

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is a threat to national security because she shelters infiltrators who smuggle arms, drugs and fake currency into the country, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged on Thursday.

“Bengal is a safe haven for infiltrators who smuggle in weapons, narcotics and fake Indian currency notes to destroy the nation. Mamata Banerjee uses them as vote bank. She is a threat to national security and needs to be dislodged from power not just for the sake of Bengal but for India,” Vijayvargiya alleged while talking to reporters on the sidelines of a party meeting in Midnapore town, about 150 km to the west of Kolkata.

“We have proof of her links with Maoists whom she used to come to power. We will make it public at the right time. She used the Maoists and later killed them,” he said in response to Banerjee’s allegation that BJP is bringing in Maoists from neighbouring Jharkhand to attack her party workers. “When we make the evidences public, people will know how Maoist leader Kishenji was killed,” he added.

Maoist commander Koteswara Rao, popularly known as Kishenji, was killed in an encounter with the police in West Midnapore district on November 14, 2011, months after Banerjee came to power overthrowing the Marxists.

The Trinamool Congress reacted promptly. “As our chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, has already become the leading face of the opposition against anti-people policies of BJP and the Union government. BJP is resorting to shameless slanders. This proves how scared they are of our chief minister and Trinamool Congress. The more BJP leaders will resort to such slanders, the more they will get isolated from people,” said Bengal food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick.

Vijayvargiya also announced on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address four rallies in Bengal during the BJP’s Rathyatra programme next month. “Modiji will address people at Malda, Durgapur, Srirampur and Krishnagar. Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani and Nitin Gadkari will also address gatherings during the Rathyatra. We have also requested chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to visit Bengal,” he added. The slogan for the Rathyatra is “Save democracy, save Bengal.”

Reacting to Banerjee’s accusation that the Rathyatra was an attempt to destroy Bengal’s secular fabric, Vijayvargiya claimed, “People across India call her Mamta Bano because she was mostly seen in mosques all these years. On the eve of the elections she is trying to regain her surname (Banerjee) by visiting temples and meeting Hindu priests just like Rahul Gandhi.”