BJP's Vijayvargiya stirs row, compares Oppn unity to 'pack of dogs'

In remarks that are likely to trigger a row, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Monday compared the Opposition unity to a "pack of dogs" coming together to take on the Prime Minister, saying neither the TMC nor a united opposition can do any harm to the Modi government as it "enjoys" the people's support.

He also said anti-national elements will be "kicked out" of the country.

"Mamata Banerjee is touring the entire country. She is trying to unite the Opposition. But that will not reap any dividend. Even if 50-100 dogs come together, can they fight a tiger? The answer is no. Narendra Modi is a tiger," the BJP national general secretary told a rally here.

He also ridiculed Mamata for continuing with her demand for rollback of demonetisation decision.

"She is still demanding rollback even after three months. I want to question: Does any honest taxpayer still have old 500 and 1000 rupee notes? The answer is no. But she is still shouting and that is because crores of money, looted in chit fund scams, are on TMC leaders," he said.

Lashing out at the "appeasement politics" of the TMC government, Vijayvargiya said the day is not far off when Hindus would have to flee Bengal and the state would turn into a second Jammu and Kashmir.

"Hindus are not allowed to immerse Durga idols on Vijaya Dashami. But people from other religious communities are allowed to do whatever they want to. We are not against Muslims, but we are against those who live in India and shout slogans in favour of Pakistan. We will kick those anti-national elements out of India," he said.

He was referring to some restrictions imposed on immersion of idols last year due to Vijaya Dashami coinciding with Muharram.

State BJP President Dilip Ghosh said his party would not tolerate Bengal being "turned into an Islamic state".

"A Maulvi is issuing fatwa against Prime Minister and the state administration is keeping mum. (Saraswati) Puja is being banned in schools and the state is keeping quiet. Bengal has gone through a painful history of Partition, we will not let that happen again," he said.

Last month, Vijayvargiya had used the titles of two recently released Bollywood films to praise Modi and hit out at Rahul Gandhi, saying "our country's 'Kaabil' is better than the 'Raees' of other country", apparently referring to the Congress vice president's foreign roots.