Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arjun Singh on March 25 demanded the arrest of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after the video of her party colleague Sheikh Alam's "four Pakistans" remark went viral.
"Mamata Banerjee should be arrested. Sheikh Alam is an asset to entice the Muslim electorate. Mamata Banerjee will do anything to remain in power," Singh, the vice president of BJP's Bengal unit, said.
Alam, a leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), stoked a row while addressing a public meeting at Nanoor in Birbhum area on March 24.
"We are 30 percent and they are 70 percent. They will come to power with the support of the 70 percent, they should be ashamed. If our Muslim population moves to one side then we can create four new Pakistans. Where will 70 percent of the population go?" news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
The controversy comes amid the allegations of religious polarisation levelled by the BJP and the TMC against each other.
Trinamool chief Mamata, in her successive poll rallies, has appealed to the electorate of Bengal to uphold the state's communal harmony and "reject the party of rioters". She accused the BJP of spreading hatred against the minorities to reap political dividends.
The BJP, on the other hand, has accused her of polarising the state through "politics of appeasement". Was it not polarisation when Durga Puja and Saraswati Puja processions were "obstructed", Union Home Minister and BJP veteran Amit Shah asked in an interview with wire agency PTI on March 24.
