The BJP on Monday continued attacking Mamata Banerjee over her Sunday offer of shelter to people from strife-torn Bangladesh, reminding the Bengal chief minister that the power to do so belonged to the Centre and not state governments.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Trinamool Congress chairperson had put up fierce resistance to the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities in Muslim-majority neighbouring countries but wanted to aid “infiltrators”.

“Mamata Banerjee said (on Sunday) that with whatever is ongoing in Bangladesh, she will keep her doors ajar and let anyone enter Bengal…. Mamataji, (SP chief) Akhilesh Yadav, and (the Congress’s) Rahul Gandhi keep talking about the Constitution. Do (states) have the right (to allow refugees into the country) in the Constitution? This power does not belong to the state governments,” said the former Union minister.

Akhilesh was present at the Martyrs' Day rally organised by Trinamool in Calcutta on Sunday when Mamata offered refuge to people fleeing Bangladesh. Mamata and Akhilesh said the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was doomed to perish soon.

In a statement peppered with communal overtones in line with the saffron ecosystem’s divisive agenda, Prasad accused Mamata of attempting to justify infiltration and altering the demography of Bengal. He went on to make the unfounded claim that the state has nine Muslim-majority districts.

“Even Calcutta’s demography has been changing because of this influx… and many accused of terror find shelter (in Bengal),” the Patna Sahib MP said.

Prasad also attacked the Trinamool chief over her statement that she wanted “Bengal to have good relations with India”, red-flagging it as an alleged attempt to weaken national integrity. He wondered what she meant by the remark, as the state is a part of the nation.

Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh took to his X handle to hit back at the BJP.

".@BJP4India should stop finding opportunities in the face of tragedy! Taking Smt. @MamataOfficial's humanitarian appeal out of context exposes the BJP's habit of politicising situations of crisis in order to wrongfully instigate people," Ghosh wrote on Monday.