TMC underestimated rise of BJP-RSS in Bengal: TMC MP

A senior Trinamool Congress MP today said the party leadership had underestimated the rise of BJP-RSS in West Bengal.
"As the CPI-M and the Congress have been politically wiped out from Bengal, a political vacuum in opposition space has been created and the BJP-RSS is fast filling up that vacuum," the MP told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
The TMC top brass had "underestimated the rise" of BJP and RSS in Bengal. They had thought it was not a big threat. But they were wrong, the MP said.
"The recent communal clashes in various parts of Bengal have proved that we were wrong in gauging the growth of BJP and RSS. Never before such large-scale communal violence had taken place," he said.

The situation is so grim that at certain places, TMC party workers in the areas of violence are getting identified by their religion rather than political party, the leader says.
The senior TMC MP's remarks were in reference to clashes during the just-concluded Durga Puja festival and Muharram which the state government has described as "stray incidents" occasioned by "personal rivalry".
The RSS's Bengal unit has recently decided to write to the Home Ministry about the rise of fundamentalism and communal incidents in the state.
"We need to organize workshops in order to prepare our grass root level leaders politically to fight against these communal designs. The people of Bengal are peace loving and they are against any kind of communal riots," the TMC MP said.