Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 4: Mounting a blistering attack on the BJP and the Election Commission of India (ECI), the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused them of using the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) as a political tool for a “silent, invisible rigging” of the elections in the states going to the polls.
She also warned the Narendra Modi government at the centre that its fall would be “inevitable” if even a single eligible voter was deleted from West Bengal’s rolls during the SIR being conducted by the ECI in the State.
Leading a massive anti-SIR rally through the heart of Kolkata, from Dharmatala to Jorasanko — the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore, the Chief Minister, accompanied by her nephew and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, alleged that the BJP and the ECI were “colluding to erase voters from opposition-ruled states” while sparing the ones governed by the saffron party.
“The BJP is conducting SIR in States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but not in BJP-ruled Assam, Tripura or other north-eastern states,” she thundered before a charged crowd. “Why is this bias? This is clear discrimination, aimed at helping the ruling party at the Centre,” she said pointing out that Assam too was due to go to the polls along with Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, all the non-BJP states.
The Trinamool Congress supremo warned, “If even one genuine voter’s name is struck off the rolls, the BJP government will be shaken to its core. The fall of this government will be inevitable.”
Accusing the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, whom she mockingly called “kursi babu,” of acting under political pressure, Ms Banerjee said, “In 2002, Bengal’s last SIR took two years to complete. Why the hurry to finish this one in a month? Just to make Modi Babu and Amit Shah happy?”
Questioning the BJP’s claim of illegal voters in Bengal, she said, “They say they will expel Bangladeshis and Rohingyas. How many Rohingyas did they find in Bihar after SIR? Just speaking Bengali doesn’t make someone a Bangladeshi. Speaking Urdu doesn’t make someone a Pakistani. Bengal’s identity cannot be insulted like this.”
The TMC chief accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of hypocrisy. “He criticises our so-called dynastic politics, yet he has appointed his own son to the highest post,” she alleged, without naming him.
Taking on the Election Commission, the Chief Minister asked if the names of someone’s parents are not on the list, would they have to prove again that they were born in this state? “The Commission is creating multiple confusions in the rolls. Who will take responsibility for these mistakes? Wouldn’t it have been better to conduct this exercise after the elections? Do we have to prove our citizenship even after so many years of birth and independence?” she said.
She said that the TMC would continue the fight against the issue both on the streets and in courts. “We will extend our support if they conduct the SIR after the Assembly polls. But how can you do it just months before the elections? This is nothing but a politically motivated move to intimidate voters,” she said.
Taking a dig at the ruling party’s alleged hypocrisy over citizenship documents, Banerjee remarked, “You made people pay to get Aadhaar cards, and now you say Aadhaar isn’t proof of citizenship! What nonsense is this?” The Chief Minister also alleged that BJP workers, posing as bank employees, were collecting personal data of people in parts of Diamond Harbour, the Lok Sabha constituency of Abhishek Banerjee, and warned citizens against sharing information with unauthorised officials.
“Give information only to official BLOs. Suppose you are not at home, will your name then be removed? That’s why we have set up a TMC helpdesk to assist people,” she said.
In an emotional pitch to the crowd, Ms Banerjee asked, “After serving seven times as an MP, three terms as the chief minister, and four terms as a central minister, do I still need to prove I’m not a Bangladeshi?” She accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to strike off “nearly two crore voters” from West Bengal’s rolls.
Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu, the state which has moved the Supreme Court against SIR, the power struggle within the opposition AIADMK, the state’s main opposition party, took a twist on Tuesday with one of its MLAs jumping to the ruling DMK accusing the party leader and former chief minister of having “mortgaged” the party to the BJP.
The AIADMK six-time MLA Manoj Pandian from the influential Nadar community and the son of veteran Tamil politician and ex-Speaker PH Pandian, joined the DMK in the presence of the chief minister MK Stalin. He launched a stinging attack on the current AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami, known as EPS, of having ‘mortgaged’ the outfit to its ally, the BJP. “Only DMK can safeguard Dravidian ideology. The AIADMK has become a wing of the BJP. MGR (founder MG Ramachandran) and J Jayalalitha (an iconic ex-Chief Minister) never mortgaged the party.”
A senior AIADMK functionary reacted briefly to Manoj Pandian’s departure, and suggested the rival group leader and a former chief minister O Panneerselvam (OPS) were in cahoots to cut the opposition party’s votes. “We have always said OPS is the DMK’s ‘B-team’… and this proves it,” the functionary said.