Un-map 'Bangla Birodhis' who send hearing notice to Amartya Sen, target 250 seats: Abhishek

Rampurhat: Claiming that Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has been served with an SIR hearing notice by the EC, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday gave a clarion call to his party's supporters to "un-map the BJP from Bengal" and ensure victory in 250 of the 294 seats in the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.

A family member of Sen, however, told PTI that they had not yet received any hearing notice from the Commission.

Addressing a public rally at Rampurhat in Birbhum district, Banerjee claimed that the BJP-led Centre was repeatedly resorting to deliberate acts of insulting the people of Bengal and has now formed a nexus with the Election Commission to target the state in the name of conducting the SIR exercise.

"On my way here, I was told that Professor Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate who brought global recognition to our country, has been served with an SIR hearing notice. Many eminent people like actor Dev and cricketer Md Shami, who was part of Team India's world cup winning squad, were also served notices.

"The only way to respond to this insult is by winning all 11 seats that Birbhum has to offer in the state assembly," said Banerjee, considered number two in the TMC hierarchy.

Save the Dubrajpur seat, which was won by the BJP in the 2021 state polls, the remaining 10 seats in the district were all won by the TMC in the previous assembly elections.

“Un-map from this state the Bangla Birodhi (anti-Bengal) BJP which has made the people suffer such ignominy time and again,” said Banerjee.

A family member of Sen said the enumeration form of the economist was duly filled and submitted.

"Sen's mother's name also appeared on the 2002 electoral rolls, and he had cast his vote in one of the earlier elections. We will check again with EC officials of the district," the member said.

Banerjee referred to the assault on a hawker selling chicken patties near the venue of the mass recital of Bhagavad Gita verses at the Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata on December 7 to assert the "culture of intolerance" of the saffron camp.

"If they can launch an attack on a poor hawker and on your food choices by winning only 70 seats in the state, imagine what they can do if they come to power. I would say that our target this time should be to win 250 seats.

"Enhance your winning margins in every seat and make the BJP candidates forfeit their deposits in a way that messages get delivered to their bosses in Delhi and Gujarat," he said.

Assuring eligible voters that their name would not be deleted from the electoral rolls, the TMC MP advised electors whose names have been wrongly removed from the published draft rolls of the SIR to fill up the form concerned and have their names relisted.

"Those who have received hearing notices can approach the Trinamool assistance camps outside hearing centres in case you are facing problems with documentation," he said.

Banerjee, who arrived at the meeting venue at around 3.45 pm, some two and a half hours later than planned, blamed the "anti-Bengal forces" for the non-receipt of permission to fly to Rampurhat from Kolkata in his scheduled helicopter.

The leader said he managed to secure an aircraft belonging to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, on account of the mandatory DGCA permission not arriving for his own helicopter, to get past the complications and reach his destination, albeit the delay.

"The elections are yet to be formally announced and already the zamindars in Delhi have jumped into the conspiracy mode. My helicopter wasn't given clearance. If the BJP thinks they are determined enough to stop me, I am 10 times as stubborn," the TMC MP said, explaining how he sought assistance from the Jharkhand CM to stick to his day plan.

Following the rally, Banerjee met repatriated Birbhum migrant Sunali Khatun at the Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital, where she gave birth to a boy on Monday.

"I firmly believe that the BJP will have to ultimately pay dearly for the tears it forced out of a mother who endured unspeakable physical and mental torture at the hands of our forces and those in Bangladesh simply because she spoke in Bangla," he told reporters at the hospital premises.

Banerjee later paid his obeisance at the Tarapith Kali Temple before winding up his day's schedule in the district.