Mukul Roy hits out at Mamata Banerjee: BJP will abide by EC order barring campaigning in Bengal

BJP leader Mukul Roy on Wednesday said that his party will obey the Election Commission's decision to cut short the campaign period in West Bengal by a day for the final phase of Lok Sabha elections.

"There is a political crisis in Bengal. EC takes special decisions when it feels the need. No violence was reported anywhere in the country during these Lok Sabha elections other than Bengal. EC took a decision that within 24 hours campaigning should be ended. We, the opposition will suffer the most. Yet, we will obey it," Roy said while addressing a press conference here.

Earlier, Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar told media, "No election campaigning to be held in nine parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal, namely Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Diamond Harbour, South and North Kolkata, from 10 pm tomorrow till the conclusion of polls."

Campaigning was originally scheduled to end at 5 pm on Friday for the nine constituencies that will go to polls on May 19.

Roy termed the violence at BJP president Amit Shah's roadshow 'criminal conspiracy' by West Bengal Chief Minister.

"Yesterday's incident was a criminal conspiracy by her (Mamata). The Chief Minister must answer. She said that there was no violence in Bengal. Did she forget Panchayat elections? Remember how people were stopped from casting their vote," he said.

Hitting back at Mamata's allegations that Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's statue was vandalised during Shah's roadshow, Roy said, "Vidyasagar does not only belong to Bengal as he is an international figure. They should not drag a figure like Vidyasagar into politics."

The BJP leader also questioned whether Banerjee has permission to hold rallies."Does the Chief Minister have permission for her rallies? he asked.

Snubbing the allegations that Centre is against former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar because the cop has evidence against him, Roy said, "If she could prove any complaints against me, I will quit politics forever," he said.

-ANI