Mamata Banerjee cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his most trusted lieutenant and the country’s Union home minister Amit Shah.
“This is all Amit Shah’s game. He behaves like he is the acting prime minister of the country. The PM knows everything. I am sorry to say so. We can only request him (Modi). Don’t trust Amit Shah so much. Ek din wo aap ka Mir Jafar ban jaayega (One day he will be your Mir Jafar),” Mamata said at the Kolkata airport on her return to the state capital after a three-day tour of flood-affected north Bengal.
Mamata’s ire at the Union home minister was over the push for the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Bengal.
The state Assembly polls are scheduled for the summer of 2026.
“Bhayanak government ka bhayanak acharan (Horrible behaviour of a horrible government). I have seen so many governments, not one was so arrogant and dictator. Their leader comes here and says we will exclude so many lakh voters from Bengal,” Mamata said. “Tell me, amidst natural calamity, rainy season, how can the SIR process be completed in 15 days?”
“Is the commission (Election Commission) for the BJP or for the protection of democratic, civic rights of the people?” Mamata asked.
Mamata warned the BJP, they are in power today but tomorrow could be a different story.
Without referring to Shah directly at this point, she referred to the communal violence in Odisha’s Cuttack.
“Cuttack is burning. Communal riots have been instigated by the BJP and the Bajrang Dal,” Mamata alleged.
Trinamool sources said the Bengal chief minister hinted at successive failures of Shah as the head of the home ministry, responsible for the internal security of the country.
“Law and order is a state subject. The BJP has always claimed that having the party at the centre and state was advantageous. Now that riots have broken out in Cuttack, neither the BJP nor Amit Shah can deny their responsibility. Didi clearly had in mind the omissions of the home ministry in the case of Manipur,” said a senior Trinamool leader.
On Wednesday, officials of the Election Commission of India held a meeting with the district magistrates, who act as the district election officers, electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant ERTs (AEROs) and officers-in-charge (election).
The meeting has been described as a preparatory meeting for the upcoming special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal ahead of next year’s Assembly polls.
The first such SIR exercise was carried out in neighbouring Bihar which goes to the polls next month.
Mamata’s charges against the centre were not restricted to the electoral roll revision alone.
The Bengal chief minister claimed within 30 minutes of her announcing a factory inauguration of a major industrial house, the event was cancelled.
“I got a message citing ill health that the event was cancelled. Poor fellow. I don’t blame him. This is a high-loaded virus. Threats everybody,” Mamata said.
Since the flash floods and landslides in vast parts of north Bengal including the Darjeeling hills and Dooars, the Trinamool and the BJP have been at loggerheads.
The BJP MP from North Malda Khagen Murmu was attacked and had to be hospitalised. In retaliation, protests were organised by the BJP across the country. A Trinamool office was ransacked in BJP-ruled Tripura. A six-member delegation including Lok Sabha MP Sayani Ghosh, Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged they were denied vehicles to reach the party office on reaching Agartala on Wednesday morning.