Dilip Ghosh, the BJP’s national vice president, sparked outrage on Thursday by suggesting senior Trinamool Congress politician Sougata Roy “would be beaten up with shoes” over a statement he made when blasting his party’s critics.

Roy responded angrily to Mr. Ghosh’s statement, saying the BJP leader lacks “formal education” and is in contact with the TMC since the saffron party no longer trusts him.

After two of the TMC’s leaders were detained in separate incidents, Mr. Roy said it was unjust how the TMC was being “maligned” by opposition parties. He added that “shoes will be produced by peeling off the skin of those who assume they can get away by maligning the party” in the name of protest.

He afterward felt terrible about saying it, however.

“Sougata Roy is an accomplished politician. He formerly had an academic position. But we are shocked when we hear the words he used to disparage the opposition. He is informing the members of his party that the skin would be peeled off to make shoes. It won’t be long until others start beating him with shoes. In several regions of the state, the TMC leaders would be thrashed with shoes, according to Mr. Ghosh.

Mr. Roy said he was hesitant to respond to the BJP leader’s statement.

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To remark on what someone with little to no formal education says would be beneath my dignity. Given that the BJP leadership no longer has faith in him, he said Dilip Ghosh personally keeps in contact with our party.

Additionally, Mr. Ghosh said that these remarks demonstrate how “scared” TMC leaders are due to the imprisonment of two of their senior colleagues, Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal.

While the CBI detained Mr. Mondal for allegedly refusing to cooperate with it in a cattle smuggling case, Mr. Chatterjee was detained by the ED in connection with the school recruitment fraud.