An intense war of words broke out between Trinamul and the BJP in Bengal on Friday over Wednesday’s Parliament security breach.

The BJP accused Mamata Banerjee’s party of being close to Lalit Jha, the suspected mastermind of the security breach.

The Trinamul salvo revolved around three demands. Party spokespersons sought Union home minister Amit Shah’s resignation, the expulsion of BJP MP Pratap Simmha and a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this in Parliament.

The saffron ecosystem has been circulating some photos, including a selfie by a person it claims is Jha, as “evidence” of Trinamul’s proximity to him. The selfie, apparently taken in a Saraswati Puja pandal, has in the frame Trinamul’s Baranagar MLA Tapas Roy and its youth wing general secretary Soumya Bakshi.

Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said Jha could have known 10,000 leaders and taken selfies with 1,000, but that did not take away from the fact that the security breach was enabled by the BJP’s Mysore-Kodagu MP Simmha, who had issued visitor’s passes to two men who breached security in Parliament.

“(Trinamul’s Krishnanagar MP) Mahua Moitra was expelled for so much less. Simmha must be expelled at once…. Prime Minister Modi should issue a statement before the House on its floor,” said Ghosh, whose party also sought Simmha’s arrest.

Trinamul veteran and state industries minister Shashi Panja said the buck stopped with Union home minister Shah.

“The matter was cause for national, international shame. Amit Shah should resign as Union home minister,” said the Shyampukur MLA.

“Shah is yet to take responsibility for the monumental failure that endangered the lives of parliamentarians. In an attempt to cover it up, the BJP has been resorting to diversionary tactics...,” Panja said.

On Thursday, the BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya, also a Bengal co-minder for the party, issued a statement on X, soon after the selfie was made public by the BJP Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar.

“So far, people involved in the entire episode have been found to have links with the Congress, CPI(Maoist) and now the TMC,” Malviya wrote. “Isn’t it obvious that a desperate I.N.D.I Alliance, just to undermine the incumbent Govt, has staged an attack on the Indian Parliament? The institution that is voice of 140 crore Indians… Shame.”

On Friday, he issued another statement on X: "Mamata Banerjee can’t remain silent on Lalit Jha’s association with her senior party leader Tapas Roy...."

Panja said countless people pose for selfies with those in public life, which find their way to social media. "What does that prove?" she asked.