The ruling TMC shared the cartoon on X with the caption: “Bengal’s gates are fortified, and Smt. @MamataOfficial stands guard! The bohiragoto BJP jomidars who are trying to crawl their way in, will find themselves tumbling head over heels.”
Apart from PM Modi, the cartoon purportedly also features Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari and former judge of Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
Hitting out at the TMC, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya called the post “unfortunate” and “maligning”. He also said the cartoon was “bringing a bad name to Bengal”.
“I don’t think that such a maligning and degraded cartoon has ever been created in independent Bharat. A chief minister who talks about (India’s) federal structure is kicking the Prime Minister of the country. Is it a political party? It is also bringing bad name to West Bengal. I don’t think it is even doing justice to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” said Bhattacharya.
“It is very unfortunate to see how TMC has brought down politics to such a level. Already people have lost respect for politics. (The TMC) It will continue losing people’s respect if such derogatory attacks continue,” he added.
BJP IT Cell in-charge and the party’s co-incharge of Bengal Amit Malviya wrote on X: “Mamata Banerjee, the sitting CM of Bengal, is shown kicking the Prime Minister of India. This is a direct threat to harm the life and kill the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and BJP Bengal leaders. Will @ECISVEEP take note and check this sinister plot before it is too late?”
The development comes a day after the ruling TMC had urged the Election Commission of India to act against Justice Gangopadhyay, who is also BJP’s Tamluk candidate, over his ‘derogatory’ remarks against Banerjee.
Speaking to a Bangla TV channel on Thursday, he had said: “Mamata Bandyopadhyay er mone hoche, mrityu ghonta beje geche (It seems that the death knell for Mamata Banerjee has been sounded).” Ganguly had later clarified that his intention had not been to make a personal attack on the CM but it was just a “figure of speech”.
Reacting to the incident, senior TMC leader and state minister Shashi Panja had accused the BJP of “stooping to new lows each day”.
“There seems to be tremendous competition among BJP leaders and candidates like Dilip Ghosh and Abhijeet Gangopadhyay over how low utterances can be. Gangopadhyay now wishes for the death of Mamata Banerjee. The fear of losing has crept into BJP. This is explicit in their behaviour,” she had said.