Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president in West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, on Wednesday sparked a controversy with his statement where he said that non-Bengalis contributed more than Bengalis in the development of the state.

“From British era, people from outside are coming to Bengal to earn livelihood. For more than 100-200 years people from outside are coming to Bengal to earn money and do business,” Ghosh said at a rally as seen on ABP Ananda.

“Citizens from outside Bengal have always worked at the jute mills and factories at both sides of the Ganga here. Non-Bengalis have contributed more than the Bengalis in the development of Bengal.

Taking a jibe at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Ghosh said that she treated workers from Bihar as outsiders but made Shah Rukh Khan a Bengali.

The Midnapore MP said, “Who rode the tangas? Who pulled the rickshaws? Today they are outsiders here and Shah Rukh Khan is one of our own! All the workers from Bihar are outsiders but Prashant Kishor is one of our own!”

Ghosh’s remarks comes at a time when the outsider-insider debate has taken a centrestage in West Bengal ahead of the state’s Assembly Elections next year. Led by Mamata Banerjee, TMC has built their election campaign with narratives to paint BJP as an “anti-Bengali” entity.

The attack on BJP comes after it decided to put central leaders in charge for Assembly Elections in West Bengal next year. The party had put five central leaders in as many organisational zones in the state before fielding another five central leaders in the state.

These developments followed BJP’s decision to appoint the party’s IT-Cell chief Amit Malviya as West Bengal’s co-convener alongside Arvind Menon. They will play deputy to BJP General Secretary Kaliash Vijayvargiya, highlighting the desperation of the party to win the eastern state.

The plot to portray BJP as an “outsider” and “anti-Bengali” party has been made evident by back-to-back press conferences from heavyweight TMC leaders.

They had somewhat similar theme of presenting BJP as an alien entity in West Bengal and invoking the ethno-nationalism pride among Bengalis against the hindutva-nationalism of saffron camp.