Mamata, Abhishek target ECI, Shah in setting TMC's poll narrative

Kolkata, Aug 28 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday sharpened their attacks on the Election Commission of India in chiselling the party's political narrative in the run-up to the assembly elections due next year.

The two leaders also targeted Union Home Minister Amit Shah, with the chief minister accusing him of indulging in "dynasty politics", a refrain that the BJP has consistently levelled against her and the TMC.

Addressing a rally in Kolkata to mark the foundation day of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the party's students' wing, Banerjee threatened to "expose the undemocratic practices" which the ECI was allegedly carrying out by means of top bureaucrats and police officers who are "in the family" of the commission members.

Abhishek, on the other hand, launched a blistering attack on the BJP, accusing it of using the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as a "tool to select voters" instead of letting people elect governments.

The BJP rubbished the TMC's claims as its "desperate bid to deny imminent defeat".

In her fresh salvo against the ECI, against which the TMC leadership has been vociferously critical for launching the SIR exercise ahead of the upcoming polls in various states, the Bengal CM alluded to her previous naming of the poll panel as the 'lollipop' of the BJP-led government.

"The lollipop government is threatening our BDOs, SDOs, DMs and police with retrenchment or jail terms. But the commission's tenure is no more than three months during the elections. It's the state government that stays. We won't tolerate this muscle flexing. We, too, have our own Pandora's box on you. We will expose your corruption if you push us. Listen, lollipop babu, we know which of your family members are IAS and IPS officers in different states and through whom you are wielding this lollipop mechanism for the BJP," she thundered.

Turning her focus on the Union home minister, Banerjee said, "Amit babu, you accuse us of running dynasty politics, but what about your son, who presides over an international cricket board where thousands and lakhs of crores of rupees are involved. Such money is not there in politics. Is that not a dynasty? Do you call it socialism?" While she implied Amit Shah's son Jay Shah, who is the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the BJP charges her with running dynasty politics because of her nephew, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is considered second-in-command in the party.

Abhishek, the party's national general secretary, alleged that the saffron party was trying to "snatch voting rights, which is a fundamental right of citizens" ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, but asserted that the state's people would give a "befitting reply to those who have insulted 10 crore Bengalis by undermining the language they speak".

"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 reach Delhi with 10 lakh Bengalis and gherao Rajpath," he said.

Mamata also claimed that the BJP has deployed over 500 teams from across the country in West Bengal to conduct surveys, aimed at deleting names of voters from the electoral rolls.

"Do not give your details if anyone comes to your house for surveys. They will use that data to delete your name from the voters' list. Instead, check directly with the polling centres and ensure your Aadhaar cards are ready," she told her supporters at the rally.

Alleging that the SIR exercise was an attempt to implement NRC through the back door, she said, "I respect the office of the EC, but you know, lollipops only suit children. If adults start taking lollipops on behalf of one party, it does not look good." Abhishek took a potshot at Shah for the Centre's attempt to amend the Constitution and remove ministers from positions in the eventuality of a jail term of 30 days or more.

"The BJP considers this country to be its ancestral property. Shah tried to amend the Constitution by bringing an amendment Bill at the dead of the night. Twenty-eight of our MPs protested against it by getting down to the well of the Lok Sabha. It is because of that resistance that Shah wasn't able to table the Bill from the first row of the House and had to retreat to the fourth. They will not be able to pass the Bill because of the opposition's numbers in Parliament," he said.

The leader credited the people of Bengal for this "success", vowing that the party will resist the Bill's passage at all costs.

"This is what we could do with 29 LS seats. And if the people had given us 40 seats, Shah would have had to cower in the last row and hide his face," Abhishek claimed.

He asserted that the party's seats in the state assembly have gone up election by election since 2011. "We will better our 2021's 215-seat performance in 2026. I challenge the BJP to cross the 50-seat mark in the upcoming state polls," he said.

The TMC supremo announced her intentions of releasing a memoir chronicling her personal experiences with several prime ministers of India and unveiling it at the Kolkata Book Fair next year.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya described the allegations against his party and the Centre as "baseless". "The TMC knows it will be defeated in the next elections, so they are coming up with cooked up stories and unsubstantiated allegations," he added. PTI PNT SMY SOM MNB NN PNT SMY BDC