West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said that Muslim MLAs “will be thrown out of the Assembly” if the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power in the state, The Hindu reported.
“We will defeat Speaker Biman Banerjee and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” the BJP leader said. “After the BJP assumes power, Muslim MLAs of theirs who will win and come to the Assembly, [we will] throw them out of the House.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused Adhikari of importing “fake Hinduism” to West Bengal, The Telegraph reported.
“Your imported version of the Hindu religion is neither endorsed by the Vedas nor our sages and monks,” the chief minister said in the House. “How can you possibly deny the fundamental rights of Muslims as citizens, just because they are Muslims?”
The chief minister added: “I have the duty and the right to protect Hindus and Hinduism, but not your version of it…Please don’t come to play the Hindu card…. I need no certification from you on how Hindu I am.”
The Trinamool Congress later tabled a censure motion against Adhikari for his remarks.
Party MLA Humayun Kabir told Adhikari to withdraw his statement within 72 hours, failing which the 42 Muslim legislators from his party would “make him understand the consequences in the Assembly”.
BJP MLAs, however, protested the motion against Adhikari, arguing that the leader of the opposition had not made the statement within the House.
Adhikari said that he had made the comments in the context of his suspension, as well as that of other BJP MLAs, from the Assembly.
“I said that as they are throwing me now, we will throw them out of the Assembly after 2026,” the Nandigram MLA said, according to The Indian Express. “In 2026, all TMC MLAs will be Muslim. No TMC MLA will be Hindu. We will throw them out of the Assembly.”
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