BJP's Kailash Vijayvargiya wants CM Mamata's police to be kept out of West Bengal polls

BJP National General Secretary and senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday said that Election Commission's representative promised him to appoint central security force for conducting the West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 with-out any fear. He alleged that the law and order in the TMC-ruled state has collapsed and demanded that local police be kept away from the next year's assembly elections to ensure that the exercise is conducted in a free and fair manner.

'Contract killing of political workers is on'

"Law and order machinery has collapsed in West Bengal. Infiltrators are pouring in. Contract killing of political workers is on. In these challenging times, we have asked the Central government to impose President's rule or the Election Commission should ensure that people cast their vote without fear," he said while speaking to reporters in Indore.

Kailash Vijayvargiya, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, said representatives of the EC had assured after their visit to Kolkata that Central forces would be deployed in adequate numbers during the upcoming elections. "But we have demanded that the state police be kept off the elections given that the police force is politicised (politically-biased) and criminalised as well," the BJP leader alleged.

The BJP leader also stated that they don't need the support of any party to fight elections and will form a government by a two-thirds margin.

'No self-respecting person can remain in TMC now'

On Saturday, he launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, wondering whether she had lost self-confidence and "mortgaged" her party, the Trinamool Congress, to poll strategist Prashant Kishore and his team. He said the old guard of TMC is deserting it, as are the people of the state. "No self-respecting person can remain in TMC now, because its reins have now gone into the hands of 'bhaipo' (Banerjee's nephew Abhishek)," Vijavargiya said.

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"I want to ask Mamata Banerjee whether she has lost her self-confidence and mortgaged the party to the PK (Prashant Kishore) company," he said at a rally in Ramnagar in East Midnapore. Kishor's organisation  Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC)  has been appointed by the ruling party in West Bengal to prepare its strategy for the 2021 assembly polls.

Vijayvargiya alleged that the Rs 1,000-crore assistance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his visit to the Amphan-affected areas in West Bengal was not accounted for by the state government. "No one knows how the money was spent or where it went," the BJP national general secretary said. After having a limited presence in the state for decades, the BJP has emerged as the main rival to the ruling Trinamool Congress. It won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2019 general elections.

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(With agency inputs)