Won’t allow anyone to take away voting rights in Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday intensified her attack against the BJP-led government at the Centre and asserted her resolve not to let anyone take away the voting rights of the people.

Addressing the foundation day event of her party’s students wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) at Mayo Road in central Kolkata, the Chief Minister once again claimed the Centre has hatched plans to conduct National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) through Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

“The BJP has deployed over 500 teams from across the country in West Bengal to conduct surveys in a bid to delete names of voters from West Bengal electoral rolls. You must yourself check whether your names are still there or have been struck off from the voters’ list. You must ensure you have your Aadhaar cards. I will not let anyone take away people’s voting rights till I am alive,” she added.

The Trinamool Congress supremo also alleged that the Election Commission was intimidating her government officers by giving them instructions.

“The Election Commission is threatening our officers. Its jurisdiction is only for the three months during elections, not throughout the year. But the real intention is something else. They want to do NRC in the name of voter list revision. I won’t let that happen,” she said.

Without taking anyone’s name, the Chief Minister said that money is being spent to make films in an attempt to defame Bengal, an indirect reference to Vivek Agnihotri’s movie ‘The Bengal Files’ – the trailer launch of which was stopped by Kolkata Police recently.

“Movies are being made with money to defame Bengal. The BJP wants to make people forget the role played by Bengalis during the freedom movement. We will not tolerate this linguistic terror,” she said.

She also hit out at the CPI-M-led Left, accusing it of joining hands with the BJP to fight the Trinamool Congress.

“The CPI-M government in Kerala is claiming that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose fled the country in fear of the British. We condemn this. They are joining hands with the BJP to take on us,” she said.

The Trinamool leader also lashed out at a section of people and Opposition parties for moving courts to put roadblocks before her government.

“I am sorry that the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination results have been delayed. Those who go to court are the ones who are obstructing the results. You cannot fight us in the political arena. That’s why you are fighting through the back door. You are holding back the appointments,” she said

The Chief Minister announced that she is writing a book on Prime Ministers she has seen or worked with in her political career, which will be released at the International Kolkata Book Fair next year.

“I have seen many Prime Ministers. I will write a book on how they were. Next year, I will release it. The country needs to know,” she said.

The Chief Minister further said that the Burdwan University Vice Chancellor has stopped funding for the researchers.

“I got to know that the vice-chancellor was appointed by the West Bengal Governor. After I came to know that, I restarted the grant for the researchers,” said the Chief Minister.

IANS