KOLKATA: The women's wing of the TMC on Friday held a march in south Kolkata to protest against alleged derogatory remarks by BJP leaders about West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee, prompting a fresh political slugfest between the two arch-rivals in the state.
The rally, led by state finance minister and TMC women's wing president Chandrima Bhattacharya, commenced from Triangular Park and culminated at Hazra More, covering around 2.4 km.
During the rally, TMC Mahila Morcha members shouted slogans against what they described as the "continued vilification of a democratically elected woman chief minister".
West Bengal Minister and TMC leader Shashi Panja, who also participated in the rally, said, "The BJP and its leaders are leaving no stone unturned to humiliate Mamata Banerjee. Humiliating her is equivalent to humiliating every woman in this State. That's why we are protesting. Their remarks are defamatory. If they cannot fight this political battle, they should not stoop to this low and make these kinds of defamatory comments."
The remarks by BJP leaders, according to the TMC, came in response to Mamata Banerjee's sharp rebuttal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent speech in Alipurduar, where he had referred to Operation Sindoor, while targeting the TMC government.
Operation Sindoor was India's retaliatory strike on terror camps in Pakistan after the April 22 Pahalgam attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed in Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP, however, countered the TMC's charges, pointing to a recent purported audio clip in which senior TMC leader Anubrata Mondal is allegedly heard using abusive language during a phone conversation with a police officer.
PTI couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the audio clip.
"Who is TMC protesting against BJP leaders? Are they protesting against their very own Anubrata Mondal?" BJP MP Locket Chatterjee asked.
"Let them first clean their own house," she said.
BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul also took a dig at the TMC's women leaders, saying, "Before joining the protest rally, they should apologise to the wife and mother of inspector Liton Halder for the way Anubrata Mondal spoke to him."
Reacting to the controversy, Kolkata Mayor and state minister Firhad Hakim said, "What Anubrata did is wrong. We will never support that. He has publicly apologised and appeared before the police."
The TMC has maintained that Mondal's comments were not endorsed by the party and that he had already faced public and legal scrutiny for his actions.