Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday led a protest march in the heart of the city and vowed to dislodge the BJP-led government at the Centre if a single eligible elector was removed from the voter list in Bengal, the dare coinciding with the launch of the special intensive revision (SIR) of rolls in the state.

Holding a copy of the Constitution, the chief minister walked 4km from B.R. Ambedkar’s statue on Red Road to Jorasanko along with her nephew and Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and thousands of other party leaders and workers.

In her address at the end of the march, Mamata said the Election Commission would not be able to replicate in Bengal what it did in Bihar.

“By the time Bihar figured it out, their (voters’) names had already been removed. We caught them before they were able to do anything here... If even one legitimate person is removed, we will bring down the BJP government, we will make sure that happens,” Mamata thundered near the Jorasanko gateway that leads to Rabindranath Tagore’s home in north Calcutta.

“They claim that all Bangladeshis will be removed... that all Rohingyas have come to Bengal. How many of the Rohingyas then did you remove in Bihar? What are the stats of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas removed from Bihar? The figures they mention, that many Rohingya people do not exist (on the planet),” she added.

“The BJP is conducting SIR in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bengal (non-NDA states), but not in BJP-ruled Assam, Tripura, or other northeastern states.... Clear discrimination aimed at helping none other than the ruling party at the Centre,” Mamata alleged.

Over four months, Mamata has sharpened her campaign against the SIR at this juncture, calling it “backdoor NRC”. She has been unrelenting in her attacks on the BJP over the “conspiracy to disenfranchise” the poor and the marginalised, who she believes are unlikely to vote for the party.

Referring to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as “kursi babu”, the Trinamool chief said: “In 2002, Bengal’s last SIR took two years. Why this abnormal rush to finish it all in a month this time? Only to please (Narendra) Modi babu and Amit Shah?”

Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee at the protest rally from Red Road to Jorasanko Thakurbari against the SIR on Tuesday. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

Mamata has often raked up Kumar’s past association with the Union home minister to target him.

“Would it not have been exponentially better to conduct this exercise after the elections?” Mamata said, pledging support to a transparent SIR after the elections.

Mamata added: “Must we all prove our citizenship after decades of our birth, that too after Independence?”

Referring to the repeated claim by leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, she said “some traitors” claim Trinamool would not win if the names of voters were removed through the SIR.

“They say they got 39 (38.73) per cent votes (in the general election last year) and Trinamool got 40 (45.76) per cent. If I recall correctly, in 2004 I got 39 (21.04) per cent and was the only Trinamool candidate in Bengal to win. Now, if you dream of winning 294 (Assembly) seats by cutting a 2-3 per cent vote share, then you live in a fool’s paradise. Your voters too will now vote for us, know this,” the chief
minister said.

Mamata said many voters’ names were already being removed in the name of “mapping”, and held the BJP responsible for triggering panic through the SIR and leading to the death of several Indian citizens in Bengal.

“They secure wins through deals, through manipulation. But never will they win the genuine mandate of the people... They have crossed every limit of oppression,”
she said.

Detailing the complex demographic history of South Asia, with examples from undivided India, the Partition and Independence and the Bangladesh Liberation War, Mamata said “illiterates with empty heads” were lying or obfuscating with the sinister motive of winning elections through polarisation.

“They envy Bengal because they know they can capture many states but not Bengal... The British Raj tried and failed... we are a revolutionary people. They think they will remove two crore names and deport people, or force them into detention camps... do all that only to capture power,” she alleged.

“Do not be afraid, Didi is here. I will do all that it takes,” she added. “This is not only about Bengal but also about the very soul of India.... We will fight this to
the finish.”

Speaking before her, Abhishek said the party would go to Delhi to protest the SIR and show the might of Bengal to the whole nation if push came to shove.