Calcutta, Nov. 5: The Trinamul Congress today attacked the BJP-led Centre over triple talaq and the wider uniform civil code issue at a Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind rally in Calcutta.

Unlike last year, chief minister Mamata Banerjee was not present at the Jamiat rally on Rani Rashmoni Avenue, but senior Trinamul leaders and ministers Partha Chatterjee and Firhad Hakim attended the event.

Hakim and Chatterjee backed the Siddiqullah Chowdhury-led Jamiat's call to reject the Centre's efforts to abolish triple talaq and put in place a uniform civil code.

Siddiqullah is now the minister of state with independent charge of the mass education and library services departments. During earlier Jamiat events, the focus used to be on the Bengal government's alleged failure to ensure the uplift of the minority community, which forms a third of Bengal's electorate.

" Achchhey din (good days) is over. An attempt is being made to mislead people in the name of religion by tinkering with personal laws," Hakim said.

"Bengal is the brightest example of secularism and communal harmony. As long as Mamata Banerjee is here, we are secure. Now she has to take up the responsibility of forming a secular government at the Centre," he added, dropping a broad hint on Mamata's national ambitions.

Several Jamiat speakers explained the fundamentals of talaq as laid down in Islam.

Chowdhury, who had criticised Mamata for her silence on alleged atrocities on Muslims in Bangladesh a few years ago, trained his guns on the BJP today.

"The BJP is trying to test us. But there is no place for it in Bengal," said Chowdhury, MLA from Burdwan's Mangalkot.

A senior Trinamul leader said later that minority politics was "always important" in Bengal.

"Now it has become extremely important in the national context. We are in an advantageous position, given our strong secular stance. It is time to capitalise on that and become the foremost national voice in this regard," he said.

Education minister Chatterjee said he had been instructed by the chief minister to attend today's meeting.

"Who are you to decide how my wife and I will live? Don't try to plant a lotus in between. Modi bhai, Bengal's land is unconquerable for you. Let me assure Siddiqullah that we will be there beside you in your struggle," Chatterjee added.

BJP national secretary Sidharth Nath Singh accused Mamata of playing with the "fire" of appeasement politics in the name of secularism. "She is walking on a very perilous road of appeasement politics, simply for the sake of petty vote-bank concerns," he said.