Mamata targets Amit Shah over SIR: ‘Want to capture Bengal by trickery’

“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 as you did in Bihar. You cannot win Bengal by cleverness and trickery,” she said, referring to the BJP-led NDA’s complete sweep in the Bihar state elections, weeks after SIR was concluded there.

Urging people to submit their SIR enumeration forms correctly, the chief minister said that the exercise unleashed “widespread fear”, with people believing their names would be arbitrarily dropped from the voters’ list.

“Nine BLOs have died in Maharashtra, in Gujarat three or four… in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and in Bengal as well. Here, 39 have died due to SIR, and 13 are critical in hospitals. Another three tried to commit suicide and are recovering. Why are you doing this before the elections? Citizens again have to prove that they belong. You are doing this on purpose so that six months before elections, state machinery cannot work and becomes paralysed,” she said.

Urging migrant workers to return home, she said that she would set up helpdesks in every block from December 12 so that people whose name is removed from the electoral roll can rectify it.

“…Today I heard the servers are down… There is no need to worry. There will be no pushback. I am your security… If anyone lacks documents, they will get them there. Trinamool workers must work actively to help people and BLOs,” she added.

Banerjee said, “We have never said don’t do SIR or census. It takes time. During elections, what is your (Centre’s) hurry? You earned crores through demonetisation, and now, in the name of SIR, you wish to do votebandi. How many people have died? Tell me. When will you stop? If someone speaks Bangla, you call them Bangladeshi. Those who came here during Independence, how do you call them Bangladeshis?”

Banerjee also alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in other states. “Even in Odisha, we are being harassed. I like it when people speak in their own languages. Then why do you attack and harass us in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh? We need an answer. We will speak in Bangla, but you cannot remove me from my language. I do not object when someone speaks Gujarati.”

The BJP hit back, saying such comments stem from the CM’s  frustration as no one is buying the TMC supremo’s argument over the issue any more.

As the infiltrators are leaving the country, Banerjee and her party are getting jittery as they realise the outcome of next year’s assembly polls, senior BJP leader Rahul Sinha asserted.

Addressing a massive anti-SIR rally in Malda’s Gazole, Banerjee said, “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.” Sinha told PTI: “As the SIR exercise is progressing really well in Bengal with enthusiastic participation by every section of people, Mamata Banerjee is getting desperate. She knows her old trick of retaining the names of fake voters and dead voters in the electoral roll won’t cut much ice any more.” The CM can’t show her face as her false narrative about Bengali-speaking voters’ names being deleted is falling flat, he claimed.

“Bangladeshi infiltrators, who had been aided and abetted by her party to get fake Aadhaar and voter ID cards, are making a beeline to the Bangladesh border and themselves admitting before TV cameras that they had settled here eight years back, enjoy citizenship of both countries and express their wish to go back to their native place at once,” he said.

“Since the infiltrators dear to the TMC no longer wish to stay here any more, Didi (Banerjee) and her party are getting jittery as they know the electoral outcome,” Sinha, a central committee member of BJP, said. With PTI