MALDA, Dec 3: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday tore into the BJP over the Election Commission’s rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls months before the Assembly polls, accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of “orchestrating” the exercise to unsettle voters and “capture West Bengal by trickery”.
Addressing a massive anti-SIR rally in Malda’s Gazole, Banerjee said the saffron camp had “miscalculated the pulse of Bengal” and ended up “digging its own grave” by pushing for a hurried revision process that triggered panic among citizens.
“In February, Bengal election dates will be announced, so they did this SIR on purpose three months earlier. Shah has done this so that either you follow SIR or topple the government by imposing President’s rule. Shah is behind this ploy of implementing SIR just before elections,” she alleged.
“Shah wants to capture Bengal at any cost. But the BJP must remember, by doing SIR in Bengal, you have dug your own grave. Bengal and Bihar are not the same. Bengal cannot be won like you did in Bihar. You cannot win Bengal by cleverness and trickery,” she said.
She alleged that the EC’s November 4 rollout of SIR had unleashed “widespread fear”, with people believing their names would be arbitrarily dropped from the voters’ list.
“Till now, 39 ordinary citizens, including four BLOs, have died due to SIR panic, suicides included. We are helping their families. This cannot continue,” she added.
Similar incidents, she claimed, had occurred in other states as well.
Banerjee clarified that the TMC was not opposing the revision itself but the “politically motivated haste”.
“We are not against SIR or census. But why the tearing hurry? A citizen again has to prove he is a citizen. Why?” she asked.
“This has been done to disrupt Bengal’s development work. They have blocked our dues, yet we are running schemes. Now they want to wreck everything in the name of SIR,” she said.
The chief minister announced that from December 12, the state government will set up statewide “May I Help You” camps to assist citizens when SIR hearings begin later this month.
She appealed to migrant workers to ensure they fill up their forms, warning that “names may be struck off if forms are not submitted”.
Ratcheting up her attack on the BJP’s ideological thrust, Banerjee asserted, “We don’t need to learn Hindutva from the BJP. I do not practise communal politics; I practise secular politics. When I go to churches, I follow their rules. Same when I go to gurdwaras and mosques. Why do you object only to Muslim culture? Everyone has their own culture. I respect every religion. I will not allow unrest in Bengal.” (PTI)
