Mamata Banerjee on Monday expressed shock at an allegedly inhuman, vindictive conspiracy by the BJP and the Election Commission of India — whom she accused of cowardice — to exclude vast numbers of genuine electors from her constituency and others in Bengal that vote for her party.
The chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo also vowed to win from her Bhabanipur constituency even if its voter count was reduced to just one.
Mamata tore into the BJP for its Parivartan Yatra (journey for change) campaign in poll-bound Bengal, asserting that it would be their shesh jatra (final journey), their binash jatra (journey of ruin) in the state.
Mamata, who has been voicing Bhabanipur voter count concerns in her close circles for months, publicly expressed them for the first time.
She said at a Holi-Dol event at Netaji Indoor Stadium that she was appalled at how much damage was being attempted through the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) of poll rolls.
“I am shocked. They are doing inhuman, vindictive work. Cowards fight from behind... that’s what they are. They have deliberately cut names... picked and chosen for exclusion,” she said.
“My Bhabanipur Assembly constituency is small. Yet from there, 60,000 voters are being excluded. But even after that, I say I will win from Bhabanipur, even if just one elector is allowed to remain,” Mamata said.
Even before the start of the SIR, Mamata had been warning her party in Bhabanipur that it was being filled with outsiders according to a plan, suggesting Trinamool electors were being reduced in numbers. Her concern assumes significance against the backdrop of the BJP having drastically lowered the gap with Trinamool in the Bhabanipur segment by over 50,000 votes in the Lok Sabha election in 2024 for Kolkata Dakshin, narrowing Trinamool’s lead to 8,297.
In the September 2021 bypolls, Mamata had won Bhabanipur by a record margin of 58,832 votes, securing nearly 72 per cent of the vote share. “I have faith in the Almighty, I have faith in my mother... in Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains.... I will sit in a dharna (at Esplanade, starting Friday afternoon), everyone will give me moral support,” she said.
Nearly one in every two Bhabanipur voters is a non-Bengali. The socio-economically diverse constituency has around 80 per cent non-Muslim votes, with Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains in large numbers.
Around 47,000 electors (nearly a fourth of the electorate) were left out in Bhabanipur. The names of about 14,154 more voters are in the “under adjudication” status. As of February 28, the Bhabanipur electorate stands at 1,59,201.
“After living in India for so many years, we cannot consider ourselves Indian citizens. Do you think this is proper? Is this not an injustice to people? I am not talking about any particular community or religion. Every genuine elector in this country has the moral right to be a voter. But this biased government of India and ECI want to erase people from the voter list with the help of Vanish (CEC Gyanesh) Kumar,” she said.
“The Constitution is in crisis. The democratic rights of the people are in danger. I condemn this. I feel the pain of the sufferers. They are common and marginalised people. They are not at fault. They submitted everything that was asked of them,” she added.
Mamata has already gone into multiple Bhabanipur huddles, issuing clear instructions to her party’s rank and file in her own Assembly seat against any laxity, urging them to ensure minimal removal of names, and to closely watch out for any lopsided exclusion from wards with substantial minority or slum-dwelling populations.
The five wards the BJP led in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are 63 (parts of Chowringhee, Taltala, Park Street, Shakespeare Sarani, the Maidan and Hastings), 70 (Jadu Babu’s Bazaar), 71 (Bhowanipore), 72 (Chakraberia, Padmapukur and Bakulbagan), and 74 (Alipore). The three Trinamool-led wards are 73 (parts of Bhowanipore, Patuapara and Kalighat), 77 (parts of Kidderpore), and 82 (Chetla).
In the September 2021 bypoll, Mamata had led in all eight wards for the first time since 2014.
“Across Bengal, 1.2 crore people are going to be deprived of their voting rights. I cannot be at ease knowing this... nobody who cares about Bengal should be, even if they are not victims of this,” she said.
“The Election Commission has worked with bias. Vanish Kumar is making people vanish. Democracy is in danger.... All blame is on the BJP,” she added. “We have been patient. But names have been deliberately removed. I know BJP leaders who have ensured that 10,000 to 30,000 voters were deleted from constituencies where Trinamool has won.”
Abhishek's 250 call
Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee's nephew and heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee jeered at the BJP's Parivartan Yatra programmes and set a goal of 250-plus seats for the Trinamool Congress in the 294-seat Bengal Assembly so that the BJP could be contained to a sub-50-seat count here.
Speaking hours before her at a party event, Trinamool MP and national general secretary Abhishek said their fight to make his aunt the chief minister for the fourth consecutive term should aim for more than 250 seats.
“You should fight in such a way that the BJP gets fewer than 50 seats. If they (the BJP) get fewer than 50 seats in Bengal, I don’t think they will stay in power in Delhi till 2029,” Abhishek told party workers.