Mamata Banerjee picked up on Wednesday from where she left off on Tuesday, calling the BJP a “loot and jhooth (lies)” party resorting to weaponising constitutional bodies to win polls.
A day after her mega protest march in the city, the chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo issued a bellicose statement onWednesday, underscoring that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal was the National Register of Citizens (NRC) “through the backdoor”.
“The 2024 Lok Sabha election was a rude awakening for the BJP. The party that boasted “Abki Baar 400 Paar” failed to secure a single majority. Now they have begun weaponising constitutional bodies to tilt the electoral scales in their favour. The “Karte Loot, Bolte Jhooth” party failed to win on votes, so now they are trying to win by notes, by misusing money and muscle,” she wrote on X.
“They have crossed the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ by conducting SIR in Bengal. If electoral accuracy were the concern, why is SIR being carried out only in Opposition-ruled states among the four heading to polls? Why was BJP-ruled Assam exempted? If the aim was to eliminate “Bangladeshis” and “Rohingyas” from the rolls, why only target Bengal? Bengal shares a border with Bangladesh, just like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. But only Bengal is being singled out. Similarly, states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Mizoram, which share borders with Myanmar, are exempted from SIR. Why?” she asked.
“Because SIR is nothing but NRC through the backdoor. Who gave the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, and a certain Mir Jafar the authority to question our legitimacy as citizens on the very soil our forefathers bled for? Who authorised them to demand our parents’ birth certificates and make us prove our existence?” she said.
Mamata has been attacking the saffron regime for months over the “backdoor NRC” by an allegedly compromised Election Commission, which she called a “conspiracy to disenfranchise” the poor and marginalised who she believes are unlikely to vote for the BJP.
“In this fight for people’s identity, constitutional rights and survival, the Bangla-Birodhis will confront a defeat like never before,” she wrote on Wednesday.
“Should... a single genuine voter be unfairly struck off the rolls, the people of Bengal will march to Delhi with the cry ‘BJP Hatao, Odhikaar Bachao’...,” she added.
Later in the day, her party's lawyer cell announced a series of public meetings across Bengal between November 11 and 20, with the first one to be spearheaded by finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya (also a lawyer) at Esplanade here at 3pm on November 11. The programme will seek to enhance outreach and ensure legal aid for the party's leaders and workers hounded by central agencies with special focus on areas of relative strength of the BJP, such as East Midnapore and various north Bengal districts -- besides the common people.
Later this month, when the Assembly convenes for a session, the Treasury benches are mulling a motion against the SIR. A similar motion was passed by the Assembly in Left-ruled Kerala in September.
Mamata receives form
A BLO reached Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence on Wednesday to hand over the enumeration form as part of the SIR. Trinamool sources said Mamata personally received the form.