BJP trying to 'select voters' through SIR, TMC will march to Delhi if rights are snatched: Abhishek

Kolkata, Aug 28 (PTI) TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday tore into the BJP, accusing it of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to "select voters" instead of letting people elect governments, warning that any deletion of legitimate names would trigger massive protests in New Delhi.

Addressing a rally to mark the foundation day of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) in central Kolkata, Banerjee warned, "Earlier, voters used to elect governments, but now the BJP is handpicking voters through the undemocratic SIR process. Our fight against this will continue. If the BJP dares to delete a single legitimate voter, we will march to Delhi with 10 lakh Bengalis, gherao Rajpath and prove our might." Banerjee, considered 'No. 2' in the TMC after party supremo Mamata Banerjee, asserted that the ruling party at the Centre was insulting Bengal's 10 crore people by questioning their identity, language, and rights.

"They called Bengalis Bangladeshis and said there is no such language as Bengali. In which language did Tagore write, in which tongue did Vidyasagar or Netaji speak? Bengal showed the way to India's freedom. We will not allow anyone to erase that," he said.

Banerjee said TMC's seats had increased in every election since 2011 and predicted that the party will return to power with an even bigger mandate in the 2026 Assembly elections.

"In 2011, we won 184, in 2016 it became 211, and in 2021, we got 215 seats. In 2026, we will go beyond that. I challenge the BJP to cross 50 seats if they can," he said, adding, "Our war cry against the saffron brigade starts today." Turning his anger on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Banerjee said the saffron camp had tried to bulldoze a constitutional amendment Bill in Parliament "in darkness," but TMC's 28 MPs thwarted the attempt.

"Shah wanted to push a Bill to strip ministers of posts with a 30-day jail term clause. Our MPs protested in the Well and forced him to retreat from the front row to the fourth. With 29 seats, we could stop him. If Bengal had given us 40 seats, he would have had to cower in the last row and hide his face," he asserted.

The Diamond Harbour MP lashed out at the BJP for allegedly halting funds due to Bengal and accused the Centre of starving the state's poor.

"They stopped wages of 69 lakh MGNREGA job card holders, housing funds for 50 lakh beneficiaries under PMAY, and thousands of crores under Jal Jeevan Mission and PMGSY. But we fought for them, and our government transferred dues directly to people's accounts," he said.

Referring to the delay in publication of West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination results, Banerjee alleged that a section of the Calcutta High Court had attempted to "plunge the future of students into darkness to teach Trinamool a lesson." He added, "We rushed to the Supreme Court, and the results were out within an hour of getting the stay order. This is the planned defamation Bengal is facing." Banerjee also invoked the memory of last year's RG Kar incident, saying, "At that time, we supported women who gave the call to 'Reclaim the Night.' We promised punishment for the accused. Our government passed the Aparajita Bill in the Assembly and sent it to the Governor, and later to the President." "One year has passed, yet the Bill has not received assent. Those who objected were not interested in punishing culprits, but in destroying Bengal's health infrastructure. Why are CPI(M), BJP, and Congress silent today? Why don't they march for women's safety?" Slamming the use of central agencies against the TMC, Banerjee said, "The BJP has sent ED and CBI to intimidate us countless times. But has our resolve broken? No! We are steel. The more you burn us, the stronger we become. The BJP wants to silence opposition across India, but Bengal has resisted and will continue to resist." In an emotive pitch to TMCP cadres, Banerjee said the fight in 2026 would be between "10 crore Bengalis and the Centre's ED-CBI machinery and BJP." "Everyone is against us — judiciary, EC, BJP, central agencies and media — but 10 crore Bengalis are with Trinamool. Those who dream of removing Mamata Banerjee from power, first try to fight TMCP. BJP and CPI(M) will lose to our students and youth wings by 10-0 goals," he thundered.

Banerjee underlined that the TMC government's welfare politics had made Bengal "Atmanirbhar." "We started 'Amader Para, Amader Samadhan' giving Rs 10 lakh to every booth, distributing Rs 8,000 crore already. This is self-reliant Bengal. We don't do politics of destruction; we do politics of welfare," he said.

Declaring that "Bengal will never bow its head," Banerjee concluded, "Next August 28, we will stand here again and hail Mamata Banerjee's fourth consecutive government. Stop us if you can." PTI PNT SMY PNT MNB