Union minister Smriti Irani today pilloried the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal for the violence over nomination filing for next month's panchayat polls, claiming that the Mamata Banerjee-led regime had "failed in the state".
"The death of BJP leader Ajit Murmu only speaks of the law-and-order situation in the state. It speaks about how the TMC government has failed in the state...It shows how democracy is dying in Bengal," the information and broadcasting minister told a press conference at the state BJP office here.
Murmu, a BJP worker, died on Wednesday after allegedly being thrashed by TMC workers in West Bengal's Bankura district. The incident took place outside the office of the block development officer in the Ranibandh area.
Irani said the entire country was well aware of the "ground reality in Bengal".
Asked for her comment on the need for deployment of central forces for the rural polls, a demand made by the opposition parties, she said, "Being a central minister, I do not want to comment on the issue from this forum, but as a BJP worker, I would like to say that in a state, where a police official of the Asansol police commissionerate is not safe, what is happening in that state we all are aware of it."