West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the attack on BJP President JP Nadda's convoy as "nautanki".
"They (BJP activists) are coming out (for rallies) with arms every day. They are slapping themselves and blaming it on the Trinamool Congress. Just think of the situation," Banerjee said.
"They are roaming around with the BSF, CRPF, Army and the CISF (personnel). Why are they so scared?" Banerjee added
Meanwhile, the saffron party has blamed the ruling TMC for the attack on JP Nadda's convoy earlier in the day. For the uninitiated, Nadda, who was on his way to Diamond Harbour Road in West Bengal along with BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP state president Dilip Ghosh to meet party workers, was attacked. Stones and bricks were hurled at their vehicles. Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were reportedly injured during the incident.
The incident has triggered a massive political war of words with the BJP and the TMC taking potshots at each other.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also condemned the attack on JP Nadda's convoy and said, "However much we condemn this incident, it is less. The central government is taking this attack very seriously. The Bengal government will have to answer to the peace-loving people of the state for this sponsored violence." In a scathing attack on the West Bengal government, Shah said that the state has gone into an era of "tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool rule".
Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar also expressed concerned over the "alarming reports of anarchy and lawlessness" and lamented that such incidents took place despite his intimations to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police.
On Wednesday, the state BJP president, in a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, had informed about protests being planned by the "goons of TMC" at different places "on the way towards Diamond Harbour from New Town".
Nadda was in West Bengal to participate in an ongoing mass outreach campaign launched ahead of the assembly elections that are just six months away.
(With IANS inputs)
