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As West Bengal’s Murshidabad district continued to remain tense on Sunday because of violence over the amended Waqf Act on April 11, which left three people dead, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP publicly targeted each other over the law-and-order situation.
The BJP alleged that several Hindu families had been forced to leave Dhulian in Murshidabad’s Jangipur subdivision because of the violence. Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, alleged that “more than 400 Hindus from Dhulian” had fled across the river to take shelter at a school in Malda’s Baisnabnagar. “Religious persecution in Bengal is real. Appeasement politics of TMC has emboldened radical elements,” he posted on X.
Union MoS and state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar also made a similar claim and targeted the TMC’s Baharmpur MP Yusuf Pathan, who posted a photo on Instagram on Saturday of himself sipping tea. “Easy afternoons, good chai, and calm surroundings. Just soaking in the moment,” Pathan captioned the photo.
Hitting out at the TMC leader, Majumdar posted on X, “Priorities? TMC MP @iamyusufpathan is posting picture of him sipping tea and soaking in the moment while Hindus are getting slaughtered in Malda-Murshidabad region! This is what happens when imports are fielded to represent Bengalis.”
Majumdar also took aim at TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, who posted a photo of his Sunday lunch on social media. “Bengal is bleeding. But guess what our dynamic ‘Big Talking’ MP @derekobrienmp Sir is doing? Holding a photoshoot with his Sunday lunch. Because, priorities, right? … Don’t worry, honorable sir — very soon, these ‘refugee’ Hindus will make every day a holiday for you. Permanent one. Courtesy of your silence. Till then, please… eat well, sleep tight. History’s watching.”
Responding to the BJP, TMC spokesperson Jayprakash Majumder said, “It is indeed a very unfortunate incident. Some political parties, especially the BJP, had been trying to instigate a communal situation in Bengal for a long time. First, they tried in Mothabari in Malda and now in Murshidabad. The root cause of this incident is also the BJP’s draconian law (the Waqf Amendment Act) that we opposed in Parliament. They brought this to divide society. Our Chief Minister has already announced Bengal will not implement the law.”
The Congress and the Left targeted both the BJP and the TMC, accusing them of polarising the electorate before the 2026 Assembly elections. “The polarisation poison is being cultivated here. The administration was initially silent. They should have known that Muslims were annoyed with the Waqf Amendment Act. So, the police should have been prepared. But they weren’t,” said Congress leader and five-time Baharampur MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who lost the 2024 election to Pathan.
Demanding the deployment of the Army, the CPI(M) blamed the district police for being a “mute spectator” as the situation spiralled out of control.
For the TMC, the violence in a communally sensitive district such as Murshidabad — the district saw communal violence in April 2024 around the time of Ram Navami and again in November that year — comes at a time when it is already dealing with the fallout of the alleged school jobs scam cathat has has seen the Supreme Court cancel the government’s 2016 appointment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
While the BJP and the rest of the Opposition question the Mamata Banerjee government’s handling of the situation, some in the ruling party prefer to see the upside. They believe that the sentiment against the amended Waqf law among Muslims provides the party with the chance of consolidating the minority community against the BJP.
However, not everyone in the TMC agrees with this view, pointing out that a similar polarisation of the Hindu vote will benefit the BJP. These leaders said the TMC had been able to keep the Opposition party at bay because: a. Muslims vote primarily for Mamata Banerjee, and b. not all Hindus in Bengal vote for the BJP. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s pro-Hindutva rhetoric from the second phase onwards did not help it consolidate the Hindu vote as much as it would have expected, while ensuring that Muslims rally behind the TMC.
“Polarisation of the Muslim vote will benefit our party, no doubt,” said a senior TMC leader. “But the problem is that the violence is not good optics for our government. We cannot appear to be seen as a party protecting only Muslim interests. After Bangladesh (the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government last year), Hindu mobilisation happened, and this type of violence may further polarise Hindus. If that happens, it won’t be good for us.”
