Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 12: The prime minister Narendra Modi and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday were engaged in verbal war with Modi accusing the Trinamool Congress of “playing with blood” in the recent panchayat elections and Banerjee retorting back charging the BJP with killing her party workers.
“TMC ne khooni khel khela hai…,” PM Modi said in Hindi while addressing the Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad of the BJP in West Bengal via video conferencing. Further, the prime minister accused the party of threatening voters and “making their life hell.”
“They do anything required to ensure that no BJP candidate can file nomination…they not only threaten BJP workers but also the voters. Contracts are given out to capture booths…This is their way of doing politics in the state,” the prime minister said.
He further alleged that TMC gave contracts to goons and asked them to capture the booth on the vote-counting day. “The party had given a contract to goons and asked them to capture booths on the vote counting day. During the counting of the votes, the TMC forced BJP members out of office and did not let them even watch. When BJP won despite all this, they took out rallies against our members,” the prime minister said.
“In Bengal, violence has been used as a means to threaten the Opposition. But despite this, love of the people of Bengal has led to the people’s victory. But when our candidates have won, they are not allowed to take out a procession,” he alleged. Modi also claimed that those who act as champions of democracy and question EVM at the drop of a hat had undermined the democratic process in Bengal.
”The TMC did everything to ensure that the BJP candidate can’t file nomination papers. They threatened not only BJP workers but also the voters. On the day of the election, the goons of the TMC didn’t allow people to vote. “The TMC gave out contracts to capture the booths. This is their way of doing politics in the state. While counting the votes, the TMC forced BJP’s counting agents out and ran away with ballot boxes,” he said.
Criticising the TMC-led government in West Bengal, Modi highlighted the ongoing struggle of BJP workers in the state and said even if the BJP candidates managed to win, ”they had to face violence.”
In a sharp rebuttal to Prime Minister’s remarks, Banerjee charged that Modi was maligning the state. ”The Prime Minister and the BJP should not talk about West Bengal. He did not take action against his own corrupt party leaders and those involved in character assassination, atrocities on women, atrocities on wrestlers and atrocities in Manipur. “The BJP killed 15-16 people during rural polls in Bengal. You must behave properly instead of giving indulgence to such people,” the TMC supremo said.
Banerjee said Modi cannot raise corruption issues because he was surrounded by alleged scams of PM Cares Fund, Rafale deal and demonetisation. She said the PM cannot fool people all the time and that he never takes action against his own people who are involved in various cases of crimes against women. “He (PM Modi) is speaking without any evidence. He wants the “country to die and common people to suffer. Only the BJP is a duffer,” the Trinamool chief said. “Don’t think that people are fools. You can fool people some of the time, but not all the time,” Mamata said.
The TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said it seems the Prime Minister was yet to accept his party’s defeat in the 2021 assembly polls. ”It seems the Prime Minister is yet to accept his party’s defeat in the 2021 assembly. His remarks against West Bengal and TMC reflected BJP’s deep-rooted hatred for the state’s people,” he said.
The ruling Trinamool Congress registered an emphatic victory in West Bengal’s violence-scarred three-tier rural polls. Banerjee had claimed that 29 people, mostly from her TMC, died in poll-related violence since the election date was announced on June 8. Police sources have put the number of fatalities at 38 and agree that at least 60 per cent of those who lost their lives were affiliated with the TMC.
The voting day was marred with widespread violence, looting of ballots papers and rigging. There were reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes and assault of presiding officers from several districts such as Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Malda, South 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur and Nadia. Reports also emerged of ballot boxes being set on fire and clashes between political parties in different locations.
Panchayat elections in West Bengal took place on July 8 and counting of the votes for 63,229 -Gram Panchayat seats took place on July 11. TMC has won in 28,985 and the BJP 7,764 seats while Congress has secured 2,022 seats so far. TMC was leading on 1,540 panchayat seats while BJP was leading on 417, according to the State Election Commission (SEC). Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has won 2,409 seats and is leading in 260 seats. Other parties won 725 seats and leading on 23 seats, while independents which included TMC rebels won 1,656 seats and are maintaining a led in 104 seats. Though the counting may have been completed, the further results have not been declared under the Calcutta High Court order.
In another case, Banerjee took to X (formerly Twitter) and slammed the Central government for introducing the Chief Election Commissioner Bill in the Rajya Sabha. The bill seeks to replace the Chief Justice of India from the three-member panel with a Union Minister to select Election Commissioners.
“Amidst calls to bow down to the judiciary, the @BJP4India instead bows to anarchy! The CJI’s role in the 3-member committee for selecting the CEC is crucial. We strongly oppose replacing the CJI with a cabinet minister in the EC selection. The discomfort suggests their vote manipulation could suffer,” the Bengal CM said in the tweet.
“India must question this blatant disregard for the judiciary!” she added. Are they aiming to turn the Judiciary into a minister-run kangaroo court? We pray to the JUDICIARY for INDIA. My lord, save our country!