'SIR Amit Shah's ploy to capture Bengal, state won't give in': Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee

Continuing with her stand against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that SIR exercise in the poll-bound state was Union Home Minister Amit Shah's "clever ploy" to topple the 14-year-old Trinamool Congress government.

Addressing a public gathering against SIR in the border district of Malda in north Bengal, Banerjee said the BJP, the CM stated that such plans won't succeed in Bengal.

"BJP is digging its own grave by carrying out the voter list review just before the Assembly polls. They cannot take over Bengal. People of Bengal will never support you. Bengal is different from Bihar," Banerjee remarked in Malda.

Attacking the BJP, she said that "communal forces" are trying to divide people. "We brought resolutions in the Assembly and lodged a case in the Supreme Court against the Waqf law. Till I am there, I will not allow anyone to touch these places. I will not allow the politics of religion. I love all religions."

Raising local concerns, Banerjee said she had completed the train line in Gazole but recurring floods and soil erosion along the Ganga remained pressing issues. She said dredging proposals sent by the state had not been funded by the Centre.

Banerjee referred to deaths of BLO workers across multiple states, including 40 in Bengal, and questioned why the exercise was carried out “in a hurry” ahead of elections. She also claimed that government servers were down on Wednesday and accused the Centre of using threatening tactics.

She alleged that some political parties were trying to “divide communally” and said the state had opposed the Centre’s Waqf law, passing a resolution against it in the Assembly. “I will not allow anyone to lay hands on religious places,” she said.