Accusing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of playing "vote bank politics", the BJP on Wednesday claimed that a huge public health crisis is staring at the state because of her "abject" failure to impose an effective lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
In a hard-hitting letter to the Trinamool Congress president, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged that members of Muslim community have "disdainfully violated the lockdown throwing caution to the wind" because of her "shameful appeasement politics".
Vijayvargiya, who is his party's in-charge of the state affairs, accused Banerjee of "political retribution" against BJP leaders in West Bengal and said that instead of fighting the pandemic, she has taken a "confrontationist" stand against the prime minister and the state's governor due to her "dirty politics".
He also claimed that the testing for the coronavirus has been "grossly and shamefully inadequate" in the state and cited the high infection rate to claim that the real situation could be grave and lead to a huge public health crisis.
Her government has been "manipulating" coronavirus death figures, he alleged.
The BJP and the TMC have been engaged in a bitter war of words over the coronavirus situation in the state, with the saffron party accusing the state government of under-reporting the number of cases and deaths caused by it.
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Banerjee has, in turn, accused the central authorities of working at the behest of the BJP and rejected charges levelled against her dispensation.
The assembly polls are due in the state in the first half of the next year, heightening the political battle between the TMC, in power for nine years, and its main challenger which fancies its chances against Banerjee after putting up a strong fight against her party in the last year's Lok Sabha elections.
In his six-page letter Vijayvargiya said, "Mamata ji, there will be a time to fight the BJP. That time will be forthcoming local body elections and next year assembly elections.... This is the time to fight coronavirus."