Emboldened by the historic victories and good show in Assembly elections in three states in Northeast India, the Bharatiya Janta Party has started attacking the Trinamul Congress-led state government in West Bengal and its leadership on petty, micro-level issues, with plans to garner support in the rural belts.

With a view to winning over sentiments of the Hindu people belonging to the poor and lower-middle-class families in the Dabgram-Fulbari Assembly segment, the BJP has protested a decision of the government to collect Rs 1,000 for burning every dead body in a newly-opened electric crematorium at Sahudangi.

Notably, state tourism minister Gautam Deb finally took initiatives to make the crematorium operational last Saturday with the help of the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA).

The crematorium was non-operational due to a lack of manpower and proper arrangements after even as it was inaugurated last year.

The North Bengal Development Department built the furnace at Sahudangi on banks of the river Sahoo last year with a view to easing the rush at the Kiran Chandra burning ghat on the banks of the Mahananda in Siliguri proper.

“As the Trinamul Congress claims that the present government is for the poor people, it should not charge Rs 1000 from poor people living in the Dabgram-Fulbari area for burning a body,” senior BJP leader Rathindra Bose told reporters at the Siliguri Journalists’ Club on Tuesday.

Mr Bose demanded that the SJDA not claim such “exorbitant” rates from the poor people for burning the body. Asked to comment on the rate, minister Deb had last Saturday said that Rs 1,000 was “affordable because chief minister Mamata Banerjee provides Rs 2,000 under the Samabyathi Prokolpo (a scheme to assist poor people in the last journey of a family member).

“People will pay Rs 1000 of the Rs 2000,” Mr Deb had said. “Operating such a crematorium without such a charge is impossible,” he had said.

Mr Bose, meanwhile, said the rate was “exorbitant and excessive” as compared to the rates in other places. “We are demanding that the state allow the burning of the bodies of poor families free of cost.”

“The Trinamul Congressled state government is now debt-ridden and is borrowing Rs 3.90 lakh crore from the market. Every person is under debt of Rs 40,000,” Mr Bose claimed, adding, “The SJDA is involved in corruption and spending huge amount of funds unnecessarily during the chief minister’s visits here.”

A political observer, meanwhile, said that the BJP move could very well be an attempt to win the confidence of the poorer sections of society as the saffron party makes plans for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

“It was a stunning victory of the BJP in the Northeastern states, which were until now off-limits for any saffron force. The BJP is encouraged by the wins that have come as a big boost to the party’s morale, while it is now definitely eyeing West Bengal and Sikkim too,” the observer said.