Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, on Friday visited Malda’s Mothabari, which had been rocked by communal violence recently, and blamed the Mamata Banerjee government for the breakdown of law and order there.

Senior BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, on the other hand, led a march in Malda town to protest against the Mothabari clash.

Adhikari met the victims of the unrest that rocked the area in the last week of March and offered monetary help to 86 families.

“Blatant inaction of police led to the deterioration of law and order in Mothabari. Those who caused the unrest were not arrested. Instead, 23 innocent persons were nabbed. Six petitions have already been filed in Calcutta High Court, seeking an NIA probe into the incident,”Adhikari said.

He visited Mandal Para, Haldar Para and two other areas of Mothabari, along with BJP supporters.

Trinamool Congress workers displayed festoons bearing cartoons of Adhikari in Mothabari.

“His (Adhikari’s) motive was to disturb the peace prevailing in Mothabari. Earlier, he had illegally collected a huge amount of money from Malda. Today, he distributed a portion of that money,” said Sabina Yeasmin, the Mothabari MLA and a ministerof state.

Ghosh joined a march and a demonstration in front of the district magistrate’s office to protest against the Mothabari incident with BJP MLAsand supporters.

The police had barricaded the way to the administrative headquarters of the district.

Ghosh stood on a roof-open vehicle and addressed the people at Foara More, a prominent crossing in Malda town.

“What happened in Mothabari is a testament to the vulnerable law and order in the state. The police shiver in front of some people, but muffle the voice of those who protest the Mothabari incident. No one is safe in Bengal. But we are not going to be mute spectators,” he said.

Malda is a district with around 54 per cent minority population.

In 2021, the BJP had won four of 12 Assembly seats in the district while the remaining eight seats went to Trinamool.