KOLKATA: BJP leaders Friday said the party will step up its demand for disqualification of MLAs who had defected from the party and joined TMC without giving up their Assembly seats as they were elected on the saffron party's tickets.
The BJP, they said, will not let such a matter pass unlike Congress and the CPI-M in the past when TMC resorted "to the same trick" to take away their legislators.
Those who had quit BJP will be defeated in the party in the by-poll that will take place after they are disqualified, they said at a felicitation programme here.
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder said the party will not back out of any fight against "undemocratic and pro-appeasement" politics of TMC in all polls ranging from the general election to that for the panchayats.
"Dates of the civic bodies polls may be announced in November. Please remember BJP will fight with equal gusto the local bodies elections the way we fought the Lok Sabha or Assembly polls. If we stay in the field the corrupt, undemocratic, appeasement practitioner TMC will be defeated from Bengal one day," he added.
Accusing TMC of borrowing the 'Jai Bangla' slogan of Bongobondhu Muzibur Rahman, he said "We don't have any issue if you keep chanting Jai Bangla. Shout as much you want but why you are so jittery about Jai Shri Ram, which is integrated to the hearts of crores of Indians! "Why do you react when people chant Jai Shri Ram before you on the street, at public events? Don't you love our Ram?," Majumder asked.
Leader of Opposition and party leader, Suvendu Adhikari said that BJP will press its demand for disqualification of MLAs who defected from the party to the ruling TMC without resigning from their seats.
"We will not let this kind of defection pass. BJP will not rest till Mukul Roy steps down as the legislator of Krishnanagar North. The party will then take up the cases of other defectors, contest and win the by-polls that will follow," he added.
The BJP had won 77 out of the 292 Assembly seats which went to the poll in April-May.
Four of them defected to the TMC, while two others resigned to retain their membership in the Lok Sabha.
Mukul Roy was the national vice-president of BJP and had fought and won on a saffron party ticket.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said TMC had resorted to the same trick "violating all ethics" to take away CPI-M and Congress MLAs in the last 10 years.
"The CPI-M and Congress did not have the courage to fight TMC on the issue as they were afraid of losing the by-poll. But BJP is made of sterner stuff. We will teach TMC a lesson," he added.
Ghosh further alleged that over 160 BJP members have been murdered by TMC in the past few years and despite repeated reminders the government did not take any action against the attackers.
"Over 50 BJP activists have been killed since May 2, the date of publication of Assembly results. The TMC government would have brushed it under the carpet had the judiciary not intervened, human rights panel not brought out the truth and the CBI did not carry out probes," Ghosh added.
He said BJP will continue to play the role of opposition and unravel the misdeeds of the Mamata Banerjee government.
Ruling out the allegations brought by BJP against the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee that she had sought "100 per cent votes" from members of a particular community but did not making same pitch in respect of communities during her campaign at Bhabanipur by-poll, state minister Firhad Hakim said it is the saffron party which professes this ideology of division and hatred.
"Not the TMC. BJP's ideology is apparent from their attempt to weave a communal narrative for every single incident," he said when asked.
Banerjee had asked every voter in Bhabanipur assembly constituency to come for voting on the by-poll day, not in any particular pocket, Hakim added.
He further said BJP's dreams of coming to power in Bengal will never be realised and they will always be rejected by the people of Bengal."