Nityananda Rai, the Union minister of state for home affairs, said on
Saturday that the Mamata Banerjee government worked for the welfare of infiltrators and questioned the allocation of funds for minority affairs and madrasah education in the vote-on-account placed in the Assembly on Thursday.

“The Trinamool government in Bengal is working for the interests of infiltrators and helping them. For this government, development means the development of infiltrators. This government blatantly gives indulgence to such people, without considering the national interest,” Rai told a news conference in Siliguri on Saturday.

Such remarks from the MoS come at a time when the saffron brigade has been playing the polarisation card to draw support in Bengal.

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, while speaking at the Parliament, had alleged that Trinamool was going to the court to protest illegal immigrants, while referring to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s appearance in the Supreme Court during a hearing of a petition in connection with the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll.

In Calcutta, BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul, while speaking in the Assembly on Thursday, raised questions over the state’s allocation for minorities and madrasah education. Her comments sparked a row in the Assembly.

The junior minister in the Union home ministry also spoke in similar lines. The state government, which tabled its vote-on-accounts on Thursday, allocated ₹5,713.61 crore for minority affairs and madrasah education.

“The Trinamool government is into appeasement politics and thus makes such allocations in the budget. Such decisions are not in the interest of the people of Bengal and the nation as a whole,” said Rai.

“The central government is working for a ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) and Bengal can also get developed only if the TMC government is removed from the state,” he added.