After asking party workers to burn down houses of independent election candidates, Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal has now threatened to cut off the hands of Congress workers who try to damage the hoardings of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
"If you (Congress workers) beat up Trinamool supporters and tear flags and posters of our party and Mamata Banerjee, then our supporters will cut off your wrists," said Mandal, the TMC president of Birbhum district, during a party programme in the district's Katwa area.
The state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya reacted sharply to the provocative statements made by Mandal and has urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to take stringent action against the TMC leader.
"We have written a letter to the SEC asking them to take strong action against Anubrata Mandal for his hate speech against Congress leaders. I just want to ask, is this democracy in Bengal? The SEC should take strong action against Mandal for the sake of law and order," Bhattacharya told PTI on Friday.
The Congress leader added that such speeches from a leader of a ruling party will prompt TMC workers to create mayhem during the upcoming civic polls in various parts of West Bengal.
The last time Mandal had courted such controversy was during the Panchayat elections in July this year, when he had reportedly asked his party supporters to burn down houses of independent candidates and launch bomb attacks on policemen if they went to rescue those candidates.
A day after his hate speech, Mandal shared dais with Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy and TMC MP from Birbhum, Shatabdi Roy, during a press conference.
Mandal is not the only leader in the Trinamool to have made such provocative speeches against the Congress. TMC leader Manirul Islam had threatened to behead a Congress leader at an election rally in July.
"Bapi Dutta (Congress leader), it would not take me even a minute to behead you," Islam had said at the rally.
Check out the video where Anubrata Mandal makes a provocative speech against Congress in July
