Bengal has become lawless under Mamata, Opposition's rights curbed: BJP

New Delhi: A day after the crackdown on protesting BJP workers in West Bengal, the party on Wednesday said the state has become "lawless" and "bankrupt" under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accused her of inflicting "police torture" on its members to suppress their voice.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad also alleged that Banerjee could be trying to divert attention from the rivalry within her Trinamool Congress (TMC) by using force against BJP members The BJP had launched the protest march against the ruling Trinamool Congress' alleged corrupt practices.

The opposition party in West Bengal claimed that over 1,000 of its workers were injured in the use of force by police and and alleged that Banerjee had surpassed the communist parties in inflicting atrocities.

Former Union minister Prasad slammed Banerjee, saying she speaks of saving democracy outside the state while crossing all limits to curb people's democratic and civil rights inside Bengal.

The Opposition is being denied its legitimate right to raise its voice, he said.

He said the chief minister's conduct has been "contrary" to her political evolution, noting her rise from the grassroots and long struggle against the earlier Left rule.

Is the fight for succession going on in the TMC, he asked, hinting about the reported differences between the chief minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee without naming the second most powerful leader in the regional party.

BJP workers may have been attacked to divert attention from the internal fight within the TMC, he claimed.

"She has now left the Left behind in inflicting atrocities and brutalities on the BJP," he alleged, asserting that the TMC cannot stop his party's march in the state.

"Under Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal has become a lawless and bankrupt state," Prasad alleged.

Corruption has reached epic proportions, he added, referring to the recovery of the huge sum of money from a TMC leader by the Enforcement Directorate.

However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that BJP had brought in goons armed with bombs from outside Bengal for the rally and said the police could have opened fire on violent BJP protesters, but her government exercised restraint.

Parts of Kolkata and Howrah district turned into a battlefield on Tuesday as BJP supporters clashed with the police while trying to get past barricades erected to prevent them from marching towards the West Bengal secretariat 'Nabanna'.

While the BJP alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government does not want to give space to opposition parties, the TMC described the saffron camp workers as "hooligans".

Prasad said Banerjee should draw a lesson from what happened to the then prime minister Indira Gandhi following the Emergency, when she had cracked down on the Opposition.