State education minister and Trinamul Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Monday cautioned the Opposition BJP leaders that they will no longer sit idle if they continue attack on them (read Trinamul Congress).

Slamming the BJP state president Dilip Ghosh for threatening the party leaders with ‘direct encounter’, Mr Chatterjee said: “There is a limit to tolerance. We are still showing our tolerance against the BJP. But, how long will we tolerate? They are continuously making unparliamentarily derogatory remarks on our party leaders. We have shown our tolerance at our extreme level. If they continue to do it, we will not sit idle by washing our hands.”

Mr Chatterjee was speaking at a meeting held near the Nadia district collectorate office in Krishnagar where BJP leader Mukul Roy had attended a party meeting two days ago and delivered a speech against the chief minister, Miss Mamata Banerjee, and her party leadership.

Reacting sharply against Mr Ghosh, he said: “The languages which the BJP leaders are often using against us, were never used by any of the political parties in earlier times. Dacoits in Chambal use this type of language. I think, Mr Ghosh wishes to be arrested.”

Mr Chatterjee said that people would never accept a party like BJP whose main intention is to spread communal tension and divide people on the basis of religion. BJP has no place in the mind of people but their leaders are trying to gain some mileage by making some derogatory remarks.

It is chief minister Mamata Banerjee who will always fight against the communal forces and she is the symbol of communal harmony, he said. In the meeting, the state transport minister Subhendu Adhikari, state health minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee, state urban development minister Firhad Hakim, state correctional administration minister Ujjwal Biswas and the party’s Nadia district president Gouri Sankar Dutta delivered their speeches.

All speakers, however, focused against either Mukul Roy or Dilip Ghosh to counter against the BJP. Mr Firhad Hakim, state urban development minister, alleged that the BJP had come to power with the help of money and publicity. “It is not only a communal force, it is a capitalist force as well. Looking at their Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, I think Mr Modi should clean his heart first,” Mr Hakim said.