The electoral battle has heated up in West Bengal with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the BJP of inciting riots in the state and Home Minister Amit Shah criticizing the Trinamool Congress for conducting a particularly intense review of electoral rolls “such a huge issue”.
Leaders of the two parties exchanged barbs on Saturday, March 28, in the run-up to the state assembly elections in West Bengal scheduled for April.
“The security of the Siliguri Corridor is threatened.”
Speaking in Kolkata on Saturday, Amit Shah said the SIR exercise was conducted across the country but no judicial officers were deployed anywhere else except West Bengal.
Addressing the people of Bengal, Shah asked: “Are the infiltrators who have been detained here allowed to decide the future of Bengal?”
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“I want to make it clear on behalf of the BJP that we are determined to identify and expel every infiltrator from the country, not just from the voter rolls but from all over the country, and this is my party’s agenda,” he said.
The home minister also claimed that the security of Siliguri corridor was threatened due to TMC’s “vote bank policy”.
He said that the country’s security is linked to the elections in Bengal “in some way,” and that it is the only state “from which infiltrators enter the country and cause unrest.”
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Shah also sought to attack Banerjee and said that he always plays “victim card politics”.
“Sometimes,” he said, “her leg is broken; at other times, her head is bandaged; sometimes she falls ill; and yet again, she stands before the Election Commission feigning helplessness while abuses are inflicted on the institution. But I have come to tell her that the people of Bengal have now fully understood this policy of the victim card…” he said.
“They took all my powers.”
At the same time, Banerjee also launched a scathing attack on the BJP and claimed that all her rights and powers as chief minister have been snatched away.
She added: “I am the elected prime minister, but they took away all power.”
She also blamed the BJP for the recent violence in Raghunathgarh in Murshidabad district on Ram Navami and said: “Don’t blame me. All my rights have been snatched away. All the officers have been transferred. BJP people have been sent here. But they don’t know that we are the ones who will win. The riots were instigated in Raghunathganj. They should feel ashamed. They (officers) were transferred here so that they can.” Incitement to riot. Shops were vandalized in Raghunathganj… Who gave you the right to vandalize someone’s house? Who gave you the right to incite riots in Raghunathganj?… All this will be accounted for,” he said, according to news agency ANI.
Violence broke out in Murshidabad on Friday during Ram Navami processions, with incidents of stone-pelting, vandalism and arson reported from multiple locations. The incident occurred after an argument over playing music when a large procession headed towards Mackenzie Park in Raghunathganj and the matter escalated into a clash.
Banerjee also warned that if the BJP comes to power in the state, “they will use bulldozers and evict everyone.”
“Sir, this will be your death knell,” she warned the BJP.
State Assembly elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29, with votes to be counted on May 4.
