With a view to taking on the BJP, which has been eyeing the 2021 election victory and which has already started campaigning in West Bengal, Trinamul Congress leaders have been accusing saffron party leaders of spreading coronavirus in the region.

Minister in-charge for North Bengal Development Department, Rabindranath Ghosh, today branded Darjeeling MP Raju Bista as ‘migratory member of parliament,’ while also attacking another state BJP leader, Raju Banerjee, who recently visited Siliguri and Cooch Behar to organise his party programmes. Both Mr Bista and Mr Banerjee have, however, responded to Mr Ghosh’s allegations.

Talking to reporters today, Mr Ghosh, said: “BJP leaders like Raju Banerjee and Raju Bista, the migratory MP, have been spreading coronavirus from Kolkata and Delhi here. They should be quarantined properly.”

It may be mentioned here that people have expressed concerns after the MP and Mr Banerjee left Siliguri soon after a BJP leader in the town was tested positive for Covid19.

The duo was in regular contact with the affected BJP leader, five of whose family members have also tested positive for the virus.

On the other hand, Mr Bista replied to Mr Ghosh today and said: “I was born in Manipur. I grew up in Delhi and I am serving the good people of Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, who voted me in as their Member of Parliament with the highest number of votes in West Bengal.”

“I am what most normal people would consider as a true blue Indian, who is not confined by small regional geographical pettiness like those racist TMC leaders. It is this same racist mentality that was displayed when our people from Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars were made to face racist assault in Kolkata and called outsiders,” he added.

“These racist TMC leaders consider Rohingyas as local, but they refuse to give citizenship rights to our Namasudra brothers and sisters. For TMC, Bangladeshi infiltrators are their ‘bhumiputra’ vote banks for whose benefit they protested against the CAA, but not the minority Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs and Hindus from the Muslim majority nations who seek refuge in India,” he said in a note from Delhi.

Mr Ghosh, on the other hand, also claimed that he brought back 142 families to the Trinamul Congress camp “from the BJP’s clutches” in the Natabari area, from where he was elected.