Would request President for action in Malda: Vijayawargiya

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday said he would request President Pranab Mukherjee to direct both the West Bengal Government and the Centre to initiate action against 'anti-national activities' in violence-hit Malda.

"The situation in Malda is very serious and that is why we have met the Home Minister and now we are going to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to update him about the situation in Malda," Vijayvargiya told reporters here.

"President himself is from West Bengal and he must be aware of the situation. So, we would request him to direct both the government to curtail the 'anti-national activities' in Malda," he added.

When asked as to why he was meeting the President after Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured him of action against the perpetrators, Vijayvargiya said we have a federal system and if the BJP government in the Centre takes a call on the incident then people will accuse of playing politics on the incident.

Earlier, a three-member BJP delegation had met Home Minister Singh and sought a high-level probe into violence in West Bengal's Malda.

Their meeting with Singh came a day after a 'fact-finding' team of the party was not allowed by the state administration to visit violence-hit Kaliachak town, which falls in Malda district.

Vijayvargiya, the BJP general secretary and also in-charge of the party's West Bengal affairs, alleged that "pro-Pakistan" slogans were raised by the crowd which also targeted establishments of a particular community.

The delegation, which was led by Vijayvargiya, included senior leader Siddharth Nath Singh as well.