KOLKATA:
The Congress-Left coalition in West Bengal is a conspiracy and voting for it will tantamount to voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday, as she kickstarted her party’s Lok Sabha election campaign from Krishnanagar constituency, where the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has renominated Mahua Moitra.
The TMC chief also attacked the ruling BJP at the Centre, accusing it of misusing federal agencies against opposition leaders while selectively letting off those who joined the saffron camp.
“There is no INDIA alliance in West Bengal. The CPI (M) and Congress are working for the BJP in Bengal. I have formed this INDIA bloc and gave it this name. After elections we will look into it,” Banerjee said, while addressing her first rally since suffering a head injury in early March. “The alliance Congress and CPI(M) have formed is a conspiracy. Voting for the Congress or the CPI(M) will mean voting for the BJP. We are fighting alone against all three.”
Polling in West Bengal will be held in all seven phases of the Lok Sabha elections. On March 10, when the TMC announced its candidates for all 42 constituencies in the state, Banerjee had said her party would contest against the BJP and Congress-Left alliance.
Banerjee’s attack on the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) came almost at the same time when the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc held a mega rally at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. Several TMC parliamentarians also attended the protest rally against the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the excise policy case.
Making an appeal to the voters, the TMC chief praised Mahua Moitra — who had won the Krishnanagar seat in 2019 polls but was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December last year in the bribe-for-query case — for her fight against the BJP. “Despite Mahua Moitra being elected by you people, she was expelled unceremoniously,” Banerjee said. “We have re-nominated her from this seat. Mahua was expelled as she was most vocal against the BJP in Parliament. You have to ensure her victory with a record margin.”
The BJP has fielded Amrita Roy, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Krishnanagar, against Moitra.
Accusing the BJP-led Centre of using federal agencies against her party’s leaders, Banerjee said: “Every day CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), ED and income tax teams are being sent to the houses of our leaders… If they (BJP) are so confident of winning 400 seats, why are they using ED, CBI and Income Tax?”
The TMC chief also advised people not to apply for citizenship under the recently notified Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, alleging that doing otherwise would designate them as foreigners. She accused the BJP of “peddling lies” regarding the CAA, stating that “Modi’s guarantee on CAA is a zero guarantee.”
“The CAA is a trap to turn legal citizens into foreigners. Once you implement CAA, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will follow. We would allow neither CAA nor NRC in West Bengal. Don’t fall for the false assurance of the central government. If you apply, you will be designated as a foreigner for five years,” Banerjee added.
According to the CAA, rules of which were notified on March 11, the Centre will start granting Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians — from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
Nadia district, under which Krishnanager constituency lies, has a majority (72.15%) Hindu population, among the highest in West Bengal districts, and a sizeable section of the population comprises Dalits and Namasudras who entered the state as refugees from then East Pakistan after the Partition in 1947 and Bangladesh after the Liberation War in 1971.
