Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, saying that the government at the Centre would be crushed if even one voter’s name is dropped from the electoral roll through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.
“If even one voter’s name is dropped, we will crush the BJP-led government,” she said while addressing a massive rally in central Kolkata, organised by the ruling TMC to protest against the roll-out of SIR in West Bengal.
The TMC rally was organised on a day when the house-to-house enumeration kicked off. This month-long exercise is a crucial phase in the SIR in which BLOs would be visiting every house to distribute the enumeration forms.
“We will uproot the BJP but won’t allow them to snatch our rights,” she said while giving a clarion call to oust the BJP from the Centre – ‘BJP hatao. Adhikar bachao’ (Remove BJP, save your rights).
The chief minister said that the last SIR, which was launched in 2002, took more than two years to be completed. She questioned whether three months was enough to complete the process and said that the TMC government in the state would cooperate if the SIR is launched after the assembly elections in 2026.
“Our fight would continue on the streets and in the courts. You have to defend your own rights. We will support you,”
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had earlier warned that the party would take the anti-SIR protests to Delhi, hinted from Tuesday’s rally that the TMC was planning to stage a massive protest in the capital in the next two months.
“If TMC can organise a rally of this magnitude in two days’ time, I would ask the BJP to think what the party can do in Delhi in two months’ time. Are you ready to go to Delhi? Should we show the strength of Bengal? Are you ready to give a befitting reply to the BJP? The BJP is hatching a conspiracy to forcefully implement the SIR. TMC will show in the next two months how to put up a resistance in Delhi with the people’s might. Get ready,” said Abhishek Banerjee while addressing the rally.
Mamata, Abhishek and other senior leaders of the party, including some ministers, MPs and MLAs walked from Red Road to Jorasanko in central Kolkata, a distance of around 4 km.
The TMC has claimed that at least seven people have died in the state due to fear over SIR.
“Earlier the people used to elect the government. Now the government is electing the voters. I am giving my word. The BJP and the centre will have to walk over our dead bodies before they label our Matua and Rajbongshi brothers and sisters as Bangladeshis and can deport them,” said Abhishek.
While the chief minister targeted the Centre on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, led a procession at North 24 Parganas district’s Agarpara where a 57-year-old man died by suicide on October 28, leaving a note holding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) responsible.
It was the first in the series of deaths by suicide after the Election Commission of India announced the roll-out of the SIR on October 27.
“Mamata Banerjee is creating panic among people. She is responsible if people die by suicide,” Adhikari said.
