Mamata has done PhD on political violence: Chandra Bose flays Didi for calling BJP a 'militant organisation'

West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Vice President Chandra Bose alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister has 'mastered the art of political violence.'

The statement came after Mamata termed the BJP as a 'militant organisation' earlier in the day.

"Mamata Banerjee has done a thesis and PhD on political violence, and for her to point finger at the opposition is hilarious. 50 people have died in the panchayat polls and so many were critically injured, this kind of violence is unprecedented in West Bengal. Even the Police force is being used as a TMC morcha by Mamata Banerjee to harass the opposition," he told ANI.

The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief, while addressing her party workers in Kolkata earlier on Thursday , had branded the BJP as a 'militant organisation.'

"We are not a militant organisation like the BJP. They are creating fights, not only among Christians and Muslims but among Hindus also" she said.

Mamata's statement came at a time when tension between the BJP and TMC are escalating in the state, following the multiple instances of violence during the recently-concluded panchayat polls.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the BJP a "militant organisation," and alleged that it is engaged in dividing the people along religious lines, while daring it to attack her party.Banerjee, a known critic of the saffron party, also accused the BJP of manipulating EVMs to increase its vote share in the state and urged Trinamool Congress workers to prepare for the next Lok Sabha elections as the entire country is looking forward to it.

"We are not a militant organisation like the BJP. They are arrogant and intolerant. They are religiously biased. They don't like Muslims, Christians, Sikhs - they are even differentiating between the upper caste and the lower caste Hindus," she said at the extended core committee meeting of the TMC.

Lashing out at the BJP, she said, "They are threatening to carry out encounters. Just because they are in power in Delhi, they are talking about hurling bombs. I dare them to come and touch us. We will show them their place." The BJP state unit hit back saying "the people of Bengal know which party has resorted to terror tactics in the last panchayat polls".

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said that his party believes in democracy unlike TMC which, he alleged, didn't allow free and fair pancahayat polls in the state."The people of Bengal has seen in the last panchayat polls which party is actually a militant organisation. People were not allowed to vote, opposition parties were not allowed to field candidates by the TMC. The TMC should not lecture us on democratic values," he said.

The chief minister's comments came after Ghosh on Tuesday said the BJP would not take it lying down if its workers were attacked by the members of the ruling Trinamool Congress.Banerjee on Thursday also accused the BJP, the Congress, the CPI(M) and the Maoists of joining hands against the TMC in West Bengal.

"The work for the revision of electoral rolls has begun. Ensure that the procedures are followed. It is the BJP's habit to tamper EVMs. Our party workers must be alert and monitor them," she said.Referring to the May assembly by-poll at Maheshtala, the TMC supremo said 30 per cent of the EVMs used then did not work properly.

"This government (at the Centre) manipulates EVM machines. Every machine will have to be monitored," she said.The Trinamool Congress had registered a massive victory in Maheshtala by securing 1,04,818 votes, while the BJP's vote had witnessed a massive rise to 42,053.

Banerjee asked her party cadre and workers to intensify mass contact ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due next year.

"You (TMC cadre and workers) should remember that people of this country are looking up to us. They want to know what are we doing," she said, adding, "You must reach out to the people. Or else there is no place for you in the party. The party will not tolerate those who are inactive."