Slugfest continues over poll day deaths
Describing the killing of four people by CISF personnel in Cooch Behar district on Saturday a “genocide”, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday urged the people not to vote for “trigger-happy BJP” as she claimed that the tragedy was the “result of a conspiracy” hatched by the saffron party to intimidate voters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), on the other hand, accused Banerjee of politicising the issue with Union home minister Amit Shah saying she chose to ignore another death that took place in the same district on Saturday.
Amid polling for the fourth phase of elections on Saturday, four persons died in Sitalkuchi area of Cooch Behar when CISF personnel opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals, who “attempted to snatch their rifles”, the police had said. In another booth, in the same area, an 18-year-old first-time voter died after being attacked by miscreants.
The TMC supremo, who addressed three rallies in Jalpaiguri district during the day, also stated that BJP leaders, who have come out in support of the central forces, should sit back and reflect if they would have had the same stance if someone in their families met with a similar fate.
“I have video footage that shows some BJP leaders are speaking in favour of the central forces after the firing incident. You (BJP leaders) don’t feel sad if sons die in other families. What if it had happened to someone in your family?” Banerjee said in Rajganj.
Hitting out at the CISF personnel, she said, “If you think someone is causing nuisance, speak to him, you also have lathis. How can you suddenly point your gun at the torso and neck of voters?” Describing the incident as “murder of democracy”, Banerjee pointed out that the Election Commission has stopped her and other politicians from visiting Sitalkuchi for 72 hours at the “behest of the BJP”.
Shah, for his part, said once BJP comes to power, political and poll-related violence will end in West Bengal.
“Except for this one incident (Sitalkuchi), elections in West Bengal have been conducted
peacefully so far. I promise that after BJP comes to power, political and poll-related violence will end in Bengal,” Shah said.
“Mamata Banerjee still has time to condole the fifth killing (Anand Burman) and apologise to the people of Bengal for her speech. She condoled only four people. She did not shed a single tear for Anand Burman because he belonged to a Rajvanshi community. He was not fit for her appeasement politics. This type of politics is not the culture of Bengal,” added Shah.
Burman, a first-time voter, was shot dead by unidentified persons outside a polling booth in Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district on Saturday, according to police. BJP claimed Burman was its polling agent at booth number 85 in the Pathantuli area of Sitalkuchi.
Continuing with her attack on the EC and the BJP, Banerjee said: “You can stop me from visit Sitalkuchi or for that matter any other place, but I will find a way out to be on the side of the distressed people.” She asserted that “for every bullet, reply will be given in votes”.
“Come out in larger numbers to cast your vote, exercise your democratic rights to defeat the trigger-happy BJP. The Cooch Behar incident was a result of a conspiracy hatched by the saffron camp,” the chief minister said during her address in Nagrakota.
The next phase of polling in eight-phase Bengal elections will take place on April 17.