Mamata: Centre, ECI attempting to divide Bengal, convert parts into Union Territory
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday levelled serious allegations against the BJP-led Central government and the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming there is an attempt to divide Bengal and convert parts of the state into a Union Territory. On the second day of her sit-in demonstration against the deletion of names of voters in the electoral rolls at Metro Channel, Banerjee said: “Their (Election Commission and BJP) intent is to divide Bengal. The BJP is planning to take away votes by dividing Bengal and turn parts of the state into a Union Territory. They (BJP leaders) are subjecting Bengali-speaking people to harassment in other states and are conspiring to deprive Bengalis of their voting rights.”
She also claimed that a day ago, she saw in a tweet that Bengal and Bihar could be divided to form a Union Territory. She also dared the Centre to carry out their “plans” if they have such guts. “Let them touch Bengal if they have the guts. This is their conspiracy. They did it once in Bihar by creating Jharkhand, and now they are trying to do it again,” she told the gathering. Central government has however issued a press statement saying that the news of dividing Bengal was completely fake. Accusing the BJP of depriving Bengali-speaking people of their voting rights, she alleged that voter deletions in the post-SIR electoral rolls were aimed at dividing the state. Slamming the ECI for allegedly deleting lakhs of names, Banerjee said 36,000 votes were deleted from a single assembly constituency, like Dinhata.
“In my own Constituency, 60,000 votes have been deleted. I challenge you to delete the entire voter list,” she said while asking several women from her Bhawanipur constituency to come on the stage and show their documents. She presented several 43 families from Bhawanipore who are alive but shown dead in the electoral roll. Over 47,000 voters’ names have been deleted in Bhawanipore and over 14,000 are under adjudication. The number thus may cross 61,000. “Are they not the citizens of the country? Don’t they have the right to vote?” she asked the family members whose names were deleted despite having valid documents. She accused the EC of “looting votes”.
“I am shocked to see that they are indulging in inhuman activities. Those who are cowards fight from behind,” she stated. “You want to divide Bengal, but first deal with Epstein. Remember, the more you attack us, the stronger the retaliation will be,” she said, referring to the Epstein Files row, but did not elaborate about the link. Questioning adjudication, Banerjee attacked the Chief Election Commissioner saying “Gyanesh Kumar is vanishing everybody. Names are being deleted. He is not abiding by the Supreme Court’s directives. She also urged the judiciary to ensure justice to the people.
“I respect the judiciary. I urge the judiciary to provide justice to the people. Names of women, farmers, Matuas, Rajbangshi, minorities are being deleted,” she said.
