Cutting across ideological divide, Opposition parties in the state rubbished the contention of chief minister Mamata Banerjee that she loves and respects all religions and communities and the charge of Muslim appeasement levelled against her is baseless.

While leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly said that she is trying to hoodwink the people, leader of the Left Front Legislature Party Sujan Chakraborty said that her putting on hizab and attending iftars is not getting her anywhere. Former BJP state chief Rahul Sinha said that the chief minister is duping the Muslims.

The chief minister has the interest of her party at the top of her agenda, Mannan said. The interests of neither the Muslims nor the Hindus figure in it, he added.

No chief minister of the state after Siddhartha Shankar Ray worked for the uplift ment of the Muslims, the leader of the Opposition said. Miss Banerjee’s claims of working in the interest of the Muslims of the state is hollow, he claimed.

The chief minister’s records of working for the Muslims speak for themselves, the leader of the Opposition said. There has not been any perceptible development of the Muslim community in the state after she came to power, Mannan said.

The residents of the state have seen the regimes of chief ministers like Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who did not have to wear hizabs and go to iftar parties, Chakraborty said. But the secular credentials of these predecessors of Miss Banerjee were never questioned, he said. For Basu and Bhattacharjee were both champions of humanity, Chakraborty said. The chief minister is indulging in gimmicks despite getting feedbacks that they are not getting her anywhere, he said.

How can the chief minister go for namaz despite being a non-Muslim, Sinha said. Her action is not in keeping with the religion she is posing to pay respect to, he said. Communal flare-ups are taking place in the state during her regime, the former BJP state president said. Face-offs between the Hindus and the Muslims over religion did not take place till her party came to power in the state, he said.