Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said on Tuesday that the Election Commission should have banned chief minister Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for longer duration “given the way she is fanning communal sentiments”.

On Monday, the EC had banned the chief minister from the campaign for 24 hours for her call to minorities not to divide their votes and women to gherao central force personnel if they created problems during polls.

Ghosh claimed on Tuesday that the EC had taken the action in cognisance of his complaint.

“I am the one who complained to them... But they should have banned her for longer given the way she is fanning communal sentiments,” he said at a media interaction in Behrampore on Tuesday morning.

“She is the cause for the deaths in Sitalkuchi because she has blatantly been disregarding the EC and central forces. So naturally, people will follow in her stead,” Ghosh said.

Burdwan attack

A group of BJP workers taking part in a road show led by

Dilip Ghosh allegedly ransacked a Trinamul Congress office at Rashikpur in Burdwan town on Tuesday evening.

Sources said Ghosh was leading the road show on the 2km-stretch from Power House More to Curzon Gate on Tuesday evening. When the road show reached Rashikpur, a group of BJP workers was involved in an altercation with Trinamul supporters.

“They suddenly ransacked our office with bamboo

sticks as police stood mute spectators. They hurled hundreds of brickbats at our office without any provocation,” said Abdur Rob, a Trinamul district secretary in East Burdwan.

But a senior BJP leader said the attack was the result of instigation by Trinamul workers.

Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty