BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged that chief minister Mamata Banerjee went to Delhi and met chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday to divert attention from her state government's alleged failures and irregularities.
The leader of the Opposition claimed that without an adequately satisfactory special intensive revision (SIR) in poll-bound Bengal, his party would not allow elections to take place here, which would automatically put Bengal under President's rule.
Adhikari warned of conducting disruptive protests in favour of a proper SIR in every district of Bengal as a countermeasure of her "Delhi drama".
"We can go everywhere in Bengal, turn the tables manifold on her, on this," said Adhikari, who met governor C.V. Ananda Bose with a BJP delegation in the evening.
"She (Mamata) deliberately planned to stage this in Delhi now as a diversionary tactic to steer attention away from allegedly ongoing administrative failures and irregularities related to the SIR. If the SIR does not take place properly in Bengal... we will not allow elections here. If a government is not formed here by midnight of May 6, President's rule gets automatically imposed," Adhikari said.
In recent times, Bengal BJP leaders like Adhikari and Samik Bhattacharya have been blaming the Mamata government for "administrative failures", which they claim led to the harassment of people at SIR hearing centres, leading many to wonder if the poll roll revision exercise has actually backfired on them in Bengal.
"This state government has changed the demographic character of Bengal by using Bangladeshi Muslims and the Rohingya... the situation is dire," claimed Adhikari, going on to make communal, dubious statements.
"There are schools, but no teachers, no students. No industry, no employment, no investments. The medical system is broken. People are being burnt alive, but the chief minister has no time for these things, she chose the Delhi drama instead," he said.
On deaths of booth-level officers, Adhikari said that if any worker involved in the SIR process died, it was not the responsibility of the BJP or the Union government, or even the Election Commission.
"Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress leaders have to take full responsibility," Adhikari said, without explaining why.