Kolkata, Feb 15 (PTI) West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Saturday courted controversy by claiming that "uneducated men and women" are protesting at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Kolkata's Park Circus as they get money and biryani purchased with foreign funds.

Ghosh's comment came two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that controversial statements such as "Goli Maro" made by some BJP leaders at Shaheen Bagh could have contributed to the party's defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.

"Poor, uneducated men and women have been made to sit on roads. In return, they are receiving money every day. They are being fed biryani bought with foreign funds," Ghosh said while addressing a party meeting here.

"Be it Delhi's Shaheen Bagh or Kolkata's Park Circus, the picture is the same everywhere. People like Brinda Karat and P Chidambaram attend these gatherings. Some uneducated women with babies on their lap are sitting there. They are the only audience to them," the BJP MP added.

His comments drew sharp criticism from leaders of both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition CPI(M), who claimed that the BJP has started panicking over the on going protests against the CAA-NRC-NPR.

"No person with minimum sense of ground reality can make such comments about these women," said CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim.

TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said such comments reflect the mindset of the saffron party.

Ghosh on Saturday announced that Amit Shah is likely to be in the city on March 1 where he will be felicitated by the party for the passage of Citizen (Amendment) Act.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)