KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday indicated that her party would bank on issues like voter lists and the Bengali language movement to contest the 2026 Assembly elections.
Speaking at a programme organised to celebrate ‘World Tribal Day’ in Jhargram, in the western part of West Bengal, she launched a scathing attack on the BJP, centring around these two issues.
In her speech, she expressed her anger over the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) exercise initiated by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The Chief Minister also made it clear once again that her movement will continue regarding the Bengali language. She targeted the central government and the ECI over the voter list exercise and used the alleged negative comments of BJP leaders regarding the Bengali language as a tool to attack the saffron party.
She said, “If anyone asks to fill up forms, please do not do it being unaware. They will remove your names from the voter lists and hand an NRC notice to you. We will not tolerate it. It is a plan of the Central Government and they will verify names of the voter list. People will have to cross-check if their names are in the voter list. Those born before 2002 are being asked to show their parents’ birth certificates.”
Banerjee claimed that when the Trinamool Congress government came to power in West Bengal in May 2011, the institutional delivery rate in the state was only 60 percent and it was much lower before that.
“How many people have the birth certificates of their parents now? Those who are asking for it – do they have their parents’ birth certificates? They are born with a silver spoon; how will they understand the woes of the poor?” she added.
Without naming the BJP, Banerjee also attacked the ruling party at the Centre.
She said, “They even dismissed the existence of the Bengali language. In which language did Rabindranath Tagore or Netaji speak? How useless are they that they say there is no such language as Bengali. As I hold a certain position, I cannot speak ill of them even if they do so.”
“People of Bengal are being persecuted. We have facilitated the return of more than 2,000 workers. They have been kept in detention camps in Gurgaon. Similar persecution is going on in Rajasthan and Assam. A tribal girl from Malda has been pushed back to Bangladesh from Madhya Pradesh. Dalits are being tortured,” the Chief Minister alleged.
She also asked people to remain cautious about the BJP, while saying, “These people will come before elections and ask for votes by giving money. Whose money is that? We know everything.”
“They want to remove the names of the people and send them to Bangladesh. They are labelling people as Rohingyas and Bangladeshis only for speaking Bengali,” Banerjee alleged.
Asking people not to let go of the voter lists and the honour of the Bengali language, she asked, “In which language is our National Anthem written? Who taught us the Bengali alphabets? It was Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar who was born in Medinipur.”
The Chief Minister complained, “Government employees are being intimidated. Notices were sent to two of my officers yesterday. They were suspended even though the elections have not yet been declared. Under which rule? You are suspending. And you are saying, an FIR will have to be filed. It will not happen. I will not let anyone be punished. Keep this in mind.”
She once again clarified that the West Bengal government will continue to stand with the state government employees.
The ECI had on Tuesday suspended four officials and a casual worker in West Bengal for irregularities in the registration of names in the voter lists. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, the ECI had also ordered the registration of an FIR against these four officials and a data entry operator posted in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts respectively for their alleged ‘criminal activities’.
