BJP may create snags in EVMs, don’t leave booth before checking: Mamata

“BJP will deploy goons to scare you. You have to ensure that EVM machines are not tampered with... Our youth workers should be alert. BJP may create snags in the EVMs. I am requesting my workers not to leave the booths," said Mamata Banerjee.

Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Taking a swipe at the BJP for fielding turncoats from her party in the Assembly elections, while leaving their own party old-timers in a lurch, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that BJP could try to tamper electronic voting machines (EVMs) and urged her supporters to remain cautious.

“BJP will deploy goons to scare you. You have to ensure that EVM machines are not tampered with… Our youth workers should be alert. BJP may create snags in the EVMs. I am requesting my workers not to leave the booths. Do not leave the place even if the central force and state police ask you to. When new machine will come, test that machine twice and guard the EVMs for one month,” Banerjee said at a rally in Egra in Purba Medinipur district.

Elections in Bengal are being held in eight phases with counting scheduled for May 2.

She said the Bengal election would decide the BJP’s fate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “After winning Bengal we will take the battle to Delhi,” she said.

Alleging that women are not safe in the BJP-ruled states, she said: “In Uttar Pradesh, women are raped and murdered. The father of a rape victim was killed recently. If a poor man steals Rs 500 we pounce on him. What about the BJP stealing lakhs of rupees in jumla, what about lakhs of cash being plundered in the name of selling PSUs?”

The BJP chants “Hari Hari in front and stabs from behind”, the TMC chief claimed. “Chewing pan parag and putting tilak on forehead, the BJP carries out attacks on people.”

Banerjee also asked the crowd not to vote for the CPI-M and the Congress “as they are friends of the BJP.”

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Calling TMC rebels “traitors” like Mir Jafar, Banerjee said: “Gaddars (traitors), Mir Jafars have now become BJP candidates to the dismay of old-timers of the BJP.”

At a rally in Patashpur, she took a dig at the family of Suvendu Adhikari, “Purba Medinipur was controlled by a particular set of people. I had blindly trusted them but in return, I got treachery and betrayal.”

With PTI INPUTS