Amit Shah behind SIR ploy in Bengal, BJP dug its own grave by rushing exercise: Mamata

Malda: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that Home Minister Amit Shah was “behind the ploy” of implementing the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, months before the assembly polls. Banerjee, addressing a rally here, called the SIR a “politically-driven exercise aimed at unsettling voters”. “Amit Shah is behind this ploy of implementing the SIR in Bengal just before the elections,” she claimed. “He wants to capture Bengal at any cost, but he will get a befitting reply,” the chief minister asserted. Claiming that the BJP miscalculated the political impact of the voter revision exercise, Banerjee said, “By implementing the SIR in Bengal, the BJP has dug its own grave. Bengal and Bihar are not the same.” She, however, said that her party, the TMC, was not opposing the exercise, “but you have to give appropriate time to conduct it. You cannot just rush things to serve the political agenda of BJP”.

Banerjee also announced that from December 12, the TMC will launch ‘May I Help You’ camps across the state to assist people when SIR hearings begin later this month. Targeting the saffron party’s ideological pitch, she added, “We don’t need to learn Hindutva from the BJP.” She also referred to the case of Sunali Khatun, the pregnant woman who was pushed into Bangladesh along with her eight-year-old son. “The (Supreme) court asked the Centre to bring back Khatun. We fought the case in court,” the CM said. Questioning the conduct of central forces, she said, “Sunali was an Indian, then why did the BSF push the pregnant woman to Bangladesh? Is it just because she is a Bengali that she was branded Bangladeshi and pushed across the border?” Reiterating her stand on citizenship issues, the TMC chief asserted: “As long as I am here, no Bengali will be sent to any detention camp or pushed back.”