Kolkata, March 4 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday claimed that the number of Muslims killed in West Bengal during the last three years was higher than in any other Indian state.

â??I request people from the Muslim community to calculate the number of people from their community who have been killed in West Bengal during the last three years and compare that figure with those in other Indian states. Just compare that figure in West Bengal with that in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, among others. You will see that the figure for West Bengal on this count is much higher than in those BJP-ruled states,â?? BJPâ??s West Bengal unit president and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya told media persons on Wednesday.

He also claimed that there have been several instances in West Bengal where Muslim Trinamool Congress activists were allegedly killed by fellow party workers from the same community, in incidents frequently reported in the media as â??factional infightingâ?? within the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhattacharya also criticised the CPI(M) over an FIR registered against Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari at a police station in Kolkata.

The complaint was filed by a youth CPI(M) leader, accusing Adhikari of making communally sensitive remarks during the Dol Yatra festival on Tuesday.

â??Though I am not here today to defend the Leader of the Opposition, all I can say is that he had been well within constitutional limits. As regards the CPI(M), the party has become totally irrelevant in West Bengal politics. So they are trying to keep themselves afloat by resorting to such gimmicks,â?? Bhattacharya said.

He also commented on the Election Commission of Indiaâ??s (ECI) move to deploy Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel well ahead of the announcement of polling dates for the West Bengal Assembly elections scheduled later this year.

â??The last time free and fair elections were conducted in West Bengal was in 2011, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front regime and the beginning of the Trinamool Congress government. Since then, there has not been a single peaceful election in the state. But this time, it seems there will be totally peaceful polling,â?? Bhattacharya said.

/IANS