BJP accuses TMC of orchestrating attack on MP Khagen Murmu during visit to flood-hit Jalpaiguri

Kolkata: The political slugfest over the landslides and floods in the northern region of West Bengal intensified on Monday with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party blaming the ruling Trinamool Congress of orchestrating an attack on a legislator and a parliamentarian of the saffron party by a mob when they were visiting one of the disaster-hit areas.

The incident also triggered a war of words between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Khagen Murmu, a BJP member of the Lok Sabha, and his party colleague, Shankar Ghosh, a member of the legislative assembly of West Bengal, went to Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri to meet the people, who had been displaced after the torrential downpour throughout the intervening night on Saturday and Sunday night flooded the many villages in the area.

“I wish the West Bengal Government and TMC were more focussed on helping people rather than indulging in violence in such a challenging situation,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, calling the attack on the party leader “outright appalling”. “It highlights the insensitivity of the TMC as well as the absolutely pathetic law and order situation in the state.”

Mamata countered, alleging that Modi had blamed the TMC and the West Bengal government outright without a shred of verified evidence, legal inquiry, or administrative report. “This is not just a political low; it is a breach of the constitutional ethos the Prime Minister has sworn to uphold. In any democracy, the law must take its own course, and only due process can determine culpability – not a tweet from a political pulpit.”

The calamity had killed at least five at Bamandanga in Nagrakata, and the deceased included a two-month-old child, who had fallen from the lap of her mother into the swirling water that gushed into the village in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday.

When Murmu and Ghosh reached Nagrakata on Monday, a mob of irate villagers surrounded them and hurled abuses at them. The police personnel then escorted them to their vehicle. But the angry villagers pelted stones at the vehicle and broke its windshield. Murmu was severely injured when a stone hit his head. He was rushed to the hospital. 

“We had gone to check the people's condition. Suddenly, a group of locals surrounded us, shouting 'Didi, Didi'. They started abusing us, then attacked from behind,” Ghosh said in a video posted on Facebook, linking the angry villagers with the ruling Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, often referred to by her supporters as ‘Didi’.

Udayan Guha, a TMC leader and a minister of the state government, alleged that the BJP leaders had gone to Nagrakata, not with aid for the affected people, but only for photo-ops.  

“If you go to a flood-affected area with 30-40 vehicles, people would be hurt. Those who lost 'roti-kapda-makaan' need food, clothes and shelter. So, we do not want to go there to do politics,” Mamata, the TMC supremo, said when she was asked about the attack on the BJP leaders. Kunal Ghosh, a senior TMC leader, alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre had not been releasing funds for several schemes in West Bengal. “If even after all these, the BJP leaders go to flood-affected areas for photo sessions, it will be better if we call it provocation,” said Ghosh.

Mamata drew flak from the BJP for delaying her visit to the disaster-hit areas in North Bengal to attend a carnival marking the end of Durga Puja festivities in Kolkata.

“She (Mamata) has realised it (quite late) that the people of West Bengal have despised her inhuman act of dancing at carnival with celebrities, when North Bengal was reeling under floods and landslides, with many people losing their lives and thousands left homeless,” Suvendu Adhikari, the state BJP heavyweight and Leader of Opposition, posted on X, accusing the TMC supremo of unleashing “her goons belonging from the special community” and of inciting them to attack the BJP MPs and MLAs and dissuade them from relief and rescue works in North Bengal.

The TMC stated that the party did not “support or condone violence in any form” but added that the deep frustration of the people of North Bengal must be understood. They repeatedly voted for the BJP but were betrayed by the saffron party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. “Today’s unrest is a direct expression of the anger of ordinary citizens, who have been abandoned in their time of need. Even in the midst of this crisis, BJP leaders chose photo-ops over providing any meaningful relief to the affected people,” Debangshu Bhattacharya, a TMC spokesperson, said.