KOLKATA: After a Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) threatened to not support any bill tabled by the government in the West Bengal Assembly in the future the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is the principal opposition in the state said that it was just a matter of time before the collapse of the Mamata Banerjee government.

MLA Abdul Karim Chowdhury from Islampur made the remark after visiting several blocks in the Islampur sub-division of Uttar Dinajpur district where his loyalists had contested the recently concluded panchayat polls as Independent candidates and after results were declared on July 11 he was allegedly beaten up by supporters of a rival faction.

He said that not only would he support any bill tabled in the assembly but he would also abstain from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state if 'atrocities' on his loyalists allegedly by a rival faction continued.

The BJP was quick to react to Chowdhury's rant, and the party's member of parliament (MP) Shantanu Thakur who is also the Union Minister of State for Shipping said that as per his hunch, the TMC government will not last beyond five months. 

Referring to the recently concluded panchayat polls, he claimed that mass rigging had taken place and had the TMC not resorted to widespread rigging in the recently concluded panchayat polls, the BJP would have bagged thousands of more seats.

"I think this is going to be the last election under the rule of TMC and its government where all the state agencies including the State Election Commission (SEC) have failed to play a neutral and impartial role," Thakur said further adding, "The Mamata Banerjee government has outlived its utility. Had the TMC not resorted to widespread rigging in the the BJP would have bagged thousands of more seats.

Leader of opposition and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar also latched on and said, the situation in West Bengal was precarious. 

Meanwhile, TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has said that Chowdhury should have taken his grievance to the party leaders and not have spoken in a defiant in public.  "There is a proper forum in the party to raise any issue, but such outburst is not warranted. The party will look into this and decide the course of action."

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen said that BJP members were commenting out of desperation after the drubbing in panchayat polls and if they try anything in their frustration then people and the state will thwart it.