West Bengal: TMC-BJP war of words over ‘boycott’ poster in Ghatal

GHATAL/KOLKATA: A poster asking shop owners not to sell anything to 18 BJP organizers of a Midnapore village sent shockwaves in political circles on Saturday reaching up to Delhi. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted against the way people were being “ostracized” in a Bengal village.“This is shocking. Would urge CM @MamataOfficial to see that ALL citizens in West Bengal are protected and not ostracised or denied the basics. Otherwise, a true shame,” Sitharaman posted.The tweet prompted the West Midnapore police to lodge an FIR suo motu after the poster was found in the Mahishda market area on Friday night.The poster asked villagers of booths 176 and 179 under Keshpur assembly constituency, where BJP had got a lead, to boycott its local organizers. It also asked shop and tea stall owners to stop selling items to 18 BJP karyakartas.The fatwa issued purportedly by the Mahishda Trinamool warned of a heft penalty on traders if they failed to comply with the orders without “consent of the party”.BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta said: “The blacklist prepared by a local unit of the ruling party in Bengal isn’t unique. The idea is to break the morale and economic backbone of karyakartas.”BJP workers complained that similar leaflets were being distributed in Keshpur. “Trinamool is trying to create an atmosphere of terror in the Ghatal area. A party may lose an election, but that does not mean that people have to be ostracized,” said BJP Ghatal leader Tanmay Ghosh.Trinamool Ghatal MP Dev Adhikari, however, refuted the charges and said the poster was not issued by anyone from Trinamool. Mahishda Trinamool leaders also lodged a police complaint saying the party’s name used as header of the leaflets was incorrect and appeared to be the handiwork of amateurs.