NEW DELHI, Oct 8: The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a tone of “cautioning” the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday accused the union home minister Amit Shah of “behaving like an acting prime minister.”
Speaking to reporters outside the Kolkata airport after her return from flood-ravaged north Bengal, Ms Banerjee said she wanted to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to repose too much faith in Shah, who “may one day become his Mir Zafar.” She was referring to the 18th-century military general of Bengal who betrayed Nawab Siraj ud Daulah in the Battle of Plassey and later became the monarch with the help of the British.
The TMC supremo accused the BJP top brass of manipulating the Election Commission into conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound States. “The (Election) Commission says SIR (Special Intensive Revision of the voters’ list) has to be done within 15 days. Are they going as per the BJP’s instruction? Everything is being done under the direction of Amit Shah, like an acting Prime Minister,” she claimed.
She said, “Their leader holds a meeting and comes here to say that he will delete several lakh names from the voters’ list of Bengal. Tell me, we are currently reeling under natural calamities, heavy rains, celebrating festivals and so on. Can the SIR exercise be completed within a fortnight and can fresh names be uploaded in that period under the current circumstances?” Ms Banerjee questioned whether the ECI should act at the behest of the BJP party, or should it act in the interest of democratic rights and civil rights of the people?
“All this is a game played by Amit Shah. He is behaving like he is the acting Prime Minister of this country. But the PM is aware of everything, I am sorry to say,” the TMC chief alleged. “We can request the Prime Minister not to trust Amit Shah always. One day, he will turn out to be your biggest Mir Zafar. Be alert while you have the time because morning shows the day,” she said.
Charging the BJP with “destroying this country,” Ms Banerjee warned the party of the possibility of not staying in power forever. “I have seen many governments in my life, but I never came across this kind of arrogant and dictatorial regime,” she claimed.
Banerjee’s jibe comes months ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Election, slated to be held in 2026. Speaking about the alleged attack on TMC’s party office in Agartala, Banerjee hit out at the BJP-led Tripura government. She claimed a five-member Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation, which has reached Agartala, is being stopped from leaving the airport.
“Police are not allowing them to even take pre-paid taxis. I told them to go on foot. If that too is not allowed, then I will go there myself. Then we will see how much power they have,” she said.
“In our delegation, there is an SC (Scheduled Caste) MP and an ST (Scheduled Tribe) minister, yet they are not being allowed to step out of the airport,” Banerjee alleged. The TMC delegation has travelled to Agartala to assess the situation after the party’s state office was allegedly ransacked on Tuesday. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev termed the attack “shocking” and said it took the party two years to set up an office in Agartala when she was in charge ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls.
The TMC team is expected to meet Tripura Governor Indrasena Reddy Nallu and Director General of Police Anurag Dhyankar to apprise them of the situation, Dev added.
Banerjee also commented on the recent assault on BJP MP Khagen Murmu in Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri, where he and BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh were attacked while visiting flood-affected areas. “The incident happened because their (BJP) public representatives never go to their constituencies. People are angry. After floods and riots, people are usually angry after having lost everything. We are now seeing an outburst among them,” Banerjee said.
“They (Murmu and Ghosh) had gone to those (the affected) villages with a convoy of thirty to forty cars. Naturally, people became angry. I never visit any area with more than three cars. They should know how to handle such situations,” she added. The BJP has accused the TMC of orchestrating the attack.
(Manas Dasgupta)
