BJP MPs detained on way to Basirhat, accuse TMC of vote bank

A central team of the BJP, comprising party MPs Meenakshi Lekhi, Om Mathur and Satyapal Singh, was stopped from visiting communal clashes-hit Basirhat in West Bengal today and detained.
The three MPs left for Basirhat in the North 24 Parganas district after arriving here from Delhi in the morning, but were stopped by the police near Birati, close to the airport, and detained.
This led to a heated exchange between the BJP leaders and the police.
Lekhi asked the police that if the situation at Basirhat was under control, as was being claimed by the state government, then why were they not being allowed to go there?

"We are MPs and only the three of us will go there. You accompany us," she told the policemen.
The police, however, refused to allow them to proceed towards Basirhat and detained them.

Later, in the evening, the three MPs met the state BJP leaders at the party headquarters here and discussed the situation prevailing in West Bengal.
Addressing a press conference here, Lekhi accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of "playing into the hands of anti-national elements for the sake of vote bank politics".
"The TMC government is playing into the hands of anti- national elements such as the Jamat. It is allowing anti- nationals to unleash terror on the majority community in order to appease the minority community," she alleged.

The BJP MP also claimed that the demography of the border areas of Bengal was "changing rapidly" and the state government was "sitting idle".
Lekhi alleged that anti-social and anti-national elements were "roaming free" in the state, but MPs were being stopped from visiting the "riot-hit" areas.
"The state government is trying to hide something and that is why it is not allowing anyone to go there," she added.
Lekhi also accused the TMC government of a "lackadaisical attitude" in acquiring land for the construction of border outposts.