KOLKATA: The massacre in West Bengal's Birbhum last week, which left nine dead, has also laid bare the fault lines in the state's ruling camp as the party's district president Anubrata Mondal on Thursday said that he had wanted to remove Anarul Hossain, arrested in the case, from all organisational posts, but was stopped by local MLA Ashis Banerjee.
Last week, eight people were burnt alive, while another succumbed to her injuries later, in Bogtui village near Rampurhat town of the district in the suspected fallout of a TMC panchayat official's murder.
Hossain, the president of Rampurhat block-1, was arrested days after the massacre from Tarapith area in the district.
"I was keen on removing Anarul from all organisational posts he held in the party. I had received several complaints against him. However, local MLA and state minister Ashis Banerjee requested me to retain him at least till the panchayat polls. Banerjee is a senior leader," Mondal told reporters.
Banerjee, on his part, said he did so keeping in mind the "interest of the organisation".
"I had made the request only after speaking to local leaders. It was an organisational decision," he said.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh declined to comment on the matter, stating that he would not be able to make any remark before talking to local leaders.
The BJP, however, said such statements from TMC leaders show that the party was trying to engage in a blame game to divert attention from the issue at hand.
"Everybody knows that Anubrata Mondal is the most powerful person in Birbhum. The kind of statements and counter statements that are coming from the TMC camp only prove that its leaders are trying to save their own skin," state BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya added.
In a similar vein, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim said the TMC, instead of fighting within the party, should find out how the incident happened.
"The TMC is now engaged in infighting, it should rather reveal who allowed this carnage to take place," Salim added.