KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged Union Home Minister Amit Shah was “behind the ploy” of implementing the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, months before the assembly polls scheduled during April-May next year.
While addressing in a party rally at Gazole in Malda district, Mamata said, "the SIR is a 'politically-driven exercise aimed at unsettling voters'. Amit Shah is behind this ploy of implementing the SIR in Bengal just before the elections," she claimed.
Significantly, the CM did not comment on Modi's involvement in the SIR issue during her speeches of around 45 minutes.
"He wants to capture Bengal at any cost, but he will get a befitting reply. By implementing the SIR drive in Bengal, the BJP is digging its own grave. Bengal and Bihar are not same," the Trinamool Congress supremo said.
"What was the necessity to launch the SIR in the state in a hurry. We are not opposing the exercise, but you have to give adequate time to conduct the process. An emergency may arise out if they want to capture Bengal at any cost," she added.
Virtually kicking off election campaigns in Malda, once a strong citadel of Congress, Mamata told the crowd, "I came here not to seek votes but stay with you during your anxiety and panic generated by the SIR. Are panicked with the exercise? Don’t panick."
"I am here with you as a security guard and won’t allow any pushback or detention camp. You contact the Trinamool Congress camp offices to get back you lost documents related to the SIR. Our party will set up ‘May I help you’ camps across the state on and from 12 December to help you all when SIR hearings begins later this month," she said.
Targeting the saffron party's ideological pitch, she added, "We don't need to learn Hindutva from the BJP. She also referred to the case of Sunali Khatun, the pregnant woman who was pushed into Bangladesh along with her eight-year-old son."
"The (Supreme) court asked the Centre to bring back Khatun. We fought the case in court," the CM said.
Questioning the conduct of central forces, she said, "Sunali was an Indian, then why did the BSF push the pregnant woman to Bangladesh? Is it just because she is a Bengali that she was branded Bangladeshi and pushed across the border?"
Reiterating her stand on citizenship issues, the TMC chief asserted: "As long as I am here, no Bengali will be sent to any detention camp or pushed back."
"As long as I am here, no one will be sent to detention camp," she said apparently keeping eyes on the elections next year in the state.