Amit Shah on Saturday gave a communal slant to the warehouse fire tragedy at Anandapur, while attributing it to “institutionalised corruption” on Mamata Banerjee’s watch.

Accusing the chief minister of a “stoic silence” on the fire, the Union home minister claimed her response would have been different had the victims belonged to what he described as Trinamool’s “minority vote bank”.

Fire had engulfed two adjoining warehouses in the early hours of January 26. While the police have received 27 missing-person complaints and recovered 25 body parts, no official death toll has been released.

Wow! Momo, one of the companies affected, has declared compensation for three employees, presumed dead. The other warehouse was a decorator’s.

Shah, who was addressing BJP workers from four parliamentary constituencies —Bongaon, Barrackpore, Barasat and Basirhat — demanded that Mamata order a probe into the fire. Simultaneously, he accused the Trinamool leadership of trying to shield those responsible.

“When a BJP government is formed (in Bengal) by the end of April, the corruption behind this fire will be exposed and everyone involved will be put behind bars,” he said.

The allegation of widespread corruption under Trinamool rule is shaping up to be one of the BJP’s main campaign planks in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

“The Anandapur fire was not an accident; the Mamata Banerjee government’s corruption resulted in this fire,” Shah said.

Shah alleged large-scale violations of fire-safety norms and cited a large human toll. Throughout, he referred to a single building catching fire, describing it as a factory.

“Twenty-five people were killed and 27 labourers are still missing since the Anandapur warehouse fire,” he claimed.

“But why did this fire break out? Whose money is parked in the momo factory? Who has the owner of the factory fled abroad with? Why has the owner not been arrested so far?”

Shah alleged the complicity of the ruling establishment, saying the fire “clearly shows that your people are involved in this incident”.

“It is shocking that only after 32 hours did a minister arrive at the spot. No NOC (no-objection certificate) had been obtained from the environment department to set up the godown on wetland,” he claimed.

“It is still not clear whether the building was locked from the inside or outside when people were burning inside.”

Adding a communal dimension to the tragedy, Shah said: “I want to ask Mamata Banerjee, if those victims were infiltrators, would you have reacted in this way? Ultimately, it is the people of Bengal who have died.”

He urged her to abandon what he described as her vote-bank politics.

Shah said the people of Bengal had once brought Trinamool to power to end Left rule, but the scale of corruption and “atrocities” under the current government had people saying “the communists were better”.

“The cut-money culture, the dadagiri of her nephew, misuse of the police, and infiltration have become an industry in Bengal,” he alleged.

Amit Shah greets the crowd in Bagdogra on Saturday. Picture by Passang Yolmo

Mamata had come to power promising to protect “maa, mati, manush”, Shah said.

“Today, maa — the mothers — are insecure; mati — the land — is being grabbed by infiltrators; and manush — the people — are living in fear of Mamata Banerjee’s syndicates,” he said.

“If you want to save the dignity of maa, mati and manush in Bengal, bring to power a party that respects Vande Mataram.”

Alleging corruption had been “institutionalised” under Trinamool, Shah listed a series of alleged scams, including the “cash-for-query” case (he didn’t name anyone), school and municipal recruitment scams, cow smuggling racket, corruption in ration distribution and alleged irregularities in implementing the MGNREGA and the PM’s housing scheme.

Claiming that corruption worth “thousands of crores of rupees” was involved, he said: “Mamata Banerjee does not see any of this because there is a problem with her eyesight.”

Shah dared the chief minister not to nominate “tainted and jailed” politicians such as Partha Chatterjee, Anubrata Mondal, Manik Bhattacharya “and 23 others”.

“She will not be able to do this, because if she does not nominate them, they will disclose the name of her nephew, who is involved in every scam,” he alleged.

Once the BJP comes to power in Bengal, Shah said, all corruption cases will be probed under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge and all those guilty would be sent to jail.

Shah referred to allegations of Trinamool supporters killing 60 BJP workers and told the party ranks that a victory in the Assembly polls would be the best possible tribute to these “martyrs”.