Taking on Mamata Banerjee on her home turf, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday accused her of trying to protect a "corrupt" officer and said there could be nothing more "shameful and unconstitutional" than a chief minister staging a sit-in to prevent "secrets related to corruption" from spilling out.
He said the "TMC goons" will be put behind bars and will be begging for mercy once the BJP comes to power in West Bengal in the same way "SP-BSP goons" have been reined in his state Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing the rally, Adityanath also accused Banerjee of exploiting the poor in West Bengal and not allowing benefits of central schemes to reach the people of the state.
He referred to the Supreme Court's order directing Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to "faithfully" cooperate with the CBI in the investigation of the Saradha scam.
"Why was West Bengal Chief Minister Banerjee trying to protect the police officer?
"You must have seen how she is trying to save a corrupt officer. Nothing can be more shameful, undemocratic and unconstitutional than a chief minister of a state sitting on a dharna (sit-in protest) to ensure that secrets of corruption don't spill out," the UP chief minister alleged.
Purulia had witnessed political violence last year. Three BJP supporters were murdered and their bodies found hanging from trees and in one case with a high tension wire in Purulia district last year, attracting angry reactions from BJP president Amit Shah and others.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee had taken a swipe at the Uttar Pradesh chief minister asking him to concentrate on his own state instead of roaming around in West Bengal.
Reacting to her remarks, Adityanath said, "I want to tell Mamata ji that Uttar Pradesh is being taken care of very well... and the day BJP government is formed in West Bengal, TMC goons will be begging for mercy just like the goons of SP-BSP in Uttar Pradesh (Jis di Bhartiya Janata Party ki sarakar aayegi, TMC ke goonde apne gale mein takhtee laga ke chalenge jaise ke Uttar Pradesh mein SP-BSP goonde chalte hein aur kehte hein hame baksh do).
"Instead of rioting and harassing people, goons in UP are now begging for their lives and promising to reform. This is the BJP rule in Uttar Pradesh," he said.
Adityanath said there was no violence in panchayat polls in UP unlike in West Bengal.
"While I was coming by road, I saw how the people of this area have been deprived just because TMC cadres siphon off all the funds given by the central government," he said.
"When the entire country has moved forward in last four-and-a-half years, why the TMC government has deprived the people of this area of those benefits. It has no right to continue in power. We need to fight hard to oust this corrupt and undemocratic TMC government," he said.
The West Bengal BJP had on Monday cancelled a public rally of Adityanath in Bankura scheduled for Tuesday claiming that the district administration was "dilly-dallying" on giving permission for the landing of his helicopter.
The tussle between the TMC and the BJP became uglier Sunday with the West Bengal government denying permission to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's chopper to land in the state and let him address two scheduled rallies in north Bengal.
Adityanath had to address the rallies in Raigunj and Balurghat via telephone.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)