West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had indulged in "illegal" election campaigning for the BJP using government machinery through his address to the nation on the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill.
Addressing a poll rally in Hooghly district's Tarakeswar, Mamata said, "They (BJP) misused the government machinery yesterday for political campaigns. We condemn this and will file a complaint (to the Election Commission)."
The TMC supremo also accused the PM of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
"You (PM) have to answer to the people of India that you are doing an illegal campaign for your party," Mamata said.
The Prime Minister, in an address to the nation on Saturday evening, named opposition parties including the Congress, DMK, TMC and the SP and accused them of committing the "sin of foeticide" for defeating the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill --which seeks to revise the framework governing delimitation and implementation of women's reservation-- in the Lok Sabha.
The prime minister also warned that women voters would punish the opposition parties for defeating the bill.
Communist Party of India (CPI) MP P Sandosh Kumar has also accused the prime minister of violating the MCC and has written to the Election Commission seeking immediate intervention.
Speaking on the issue of women's reservation, Mamata asked why the BJP-led Union Government has not implemented women's quota in Parliament even after the law was passed in September 2023.
Questioning how many times the "same bill needs to be passed," Mamata claimed the Centre had latched the delimitation bill with the women's quota legislation tabled in the Lok Sabha.
"They had the audacity to bring the bill in the Lok Sabha despite not having the requisite numbers to pass it," she said, claiming that the BJP's "downfall" has started.
Earlier in the day, the Bengal CM slammed PM Modi for "choosing to mislead" the nation regarding the Constitution amendment bill.
"It is deeply unfortunate that the Prime Minister chose to mislead the nation rather than address it honestly," she said in a post on X.
Describing PM Modi's address to the nation as "cowardly," Mamata wrote, "Mr. Prime Minister, the next time you address the nation, have the courage to do so from the Floor of Parliament, where you are subject to scrutiny, challenge and accountability. What you did yesterday was cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued. You can feel power slipping through your fingers. And you are prepared to go to any extent to hold on for just a little while longer."
The Bengal CM also alleged that the Centre was attempting to push forward the delimitation exercise by "using women as a shield."
Asserting that the TMC has consistently supported greater political representation for women, Mamata claimed, "We have the highest proportion of female elected representatives in both Parliament and the state legislature. In the Lok Sabha, 37.9 per cent of TMC's elected members are women."
She added that the party has nominated 46% women members in the Rajya Sabha.
"What we are fundamentally opposed to is the Delimitation exercise that the Modi Government was plotting to push through by using women as a shield for its vested political agenda," she said.
"What we are fundamentally opposed to is the altering of Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution, the division of this nation and the usurpation of power through gerrymandering, by redrawing political contours to hand greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others. This is an assault on federal democracy. And we will not watch it happen in silence," Mamata added.
In a major setback to the BJP-led government, the Constitution amendment bill proposed by it was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Friday as 230 MPs voted against it.
Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority, but could only garner 298 votes.