Detect, delete and deport Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas, leader of the Opposition in Bengal Suvendu Adhikari demanded on Tuesday while helming a BJP rally on the outskirts of Calcutta where he sought to counter Trinamool’s stand on the SIR.
While Trinamool pledged to protect all legitimate and existing voters in Bengal, Adhikari instructed BJP workers to ensure that not a single name of Bangladeshi Muslims, Rohingyas or voters with multiple entries figures on the fresh electoral rolls.
The three “Ds”, which featured prominently on posters and banners, were the theme of Adhikari’s march in Sodepur in North 24-Parganas.
“Your duty as party workers is to turn your polling booth into a bastion and ensure that the names of Bangladeshi Muslims, Rohingyas and voters with double or triple entries do not appear in the fresh electoral rolls,” Adhikari said while addressing a crowd at the end of the march called Parivartan Yatra.
“Today, the distribution of enumeration forms has begun across the state. The final electoral roll will be published on February 7. Then where will your (Mamata Banerjee’s) Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslim voters go? I challenge any TMC leader to have the guts to prevent the SIR process,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari led thousands of BJP leaders and workers from the Sodepur Traffic More to Tentultala More in Agarpara.
Suvendu Adhikari at the BJP rally in Sodepur on Tuesday.
BJP sources said Adhikari had stepped up the attack on Mamata over her party’s stance on the SIR, claiming her move was intended to protect illegal infiltrators, particularly Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas, believed to be a strong Trinamool vote bank.
Ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, the BJP has been whetting its Hindutva agenda in the hope of cornering at least an additional 4-6 per cent of the majority vote, which multiple party leaders believe will help it come to power.
“Detect, delete and deport is the party’s policy, and one of the party’s prominent faces pitched it perfectly on a day when the top two leaders of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee, peddled their own narrative of protecting all voters. Trinamool has been trying to make it an issue just as it did with the anti-NRC movement ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. Countering that narrative was important,” said a senior BJP leader.
Former BJP state president and Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar on Tuesday said Trinamool’s uproar over the SIR was aimed at diverting the focus from anti-incumbency issues such as corruption in government recruitments and joblessness in the state. Adhikari reminded the party that such a tactic would not help it win the election.
“If they (Trinamool) do not allow the SIR to be conducted properly or if they beat up booth-level officers (BLOs), or if they resort to the same tactics used during the CAA protests — such as setting trains on fire and killing people — then the electoral roll will not be published on the stipulated date. If the electoral roll is not published, there would be no election,” Adhikari said.
“If elections are not held, then there would be President’s rule,” the Nandigram MLA said, before claiming that it would be Trinamool’s responsibility, besides the Election Commission’s, to help complete the SIR process properly.
However, he cautioned that if any BJP booth-level agent was attacked, he, along with Majumdar and state president Samik Bhattacharya, would fight back.
