Mamata: BJP using central agencies in polls... don’t give in

AHEAD OF Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Cooch Behar town, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday addressed a rally in the North Bengal town where she urged people to “teach BJP a lesson” for “not respecting the model code of conduct and misusing Central agencies” and said that one can trust a poisonous snake but not the BJP.

“Central investigating agencies, Border Security Force (BSF), and Central Industrial Security Force(cisf)areworkingatthebehest of the BJP... They are being involved in the elections. There is no consequence for their crimes. They are going to every home and saying ‘BJP ke vote dao, agency theke mukti pao’.donotbowyour heads to this oppression. They must be taught a lesson,” the Trinamool Congress chief.

“The BJP is asking you to enrol names for Awas Yojna again. Why will the names be enrolled again? They want further enrollment so that they can remove them. You can trust a poisonous snake; you can even pet it, but you can never trust the BJP... The BJP is destroying the country,” she added.

Asserting that her party TMC will not bow before the “threats of central agencies”, Banerjee urged women in Cooch Behar to file police complaints if “there are instances of BSF torturing locals” ahead of the polls, scheduled for April 19.

Without naming local BJP MP and Union minister Nisith Pramanik, she said: “We expelled him from our party. He became a liability to our party and he became an asset when he went to the BJP. He is a goonda. He always believes in violence. Some days before he attacked our leader’s convoy. I know how many cases there are against him. He became a minister but did not develop Cooch Behar. He developed only his own assets.”

Banerjee also reminded the audience about the Sitalkuchi firing incident during the 2021 Assembly elections.

On April 10, 2021, when polling was underway, five people were killed when the Central Industrial Security Force opened fire at Amtali Madhyamik Siksha Kendra in Jorapatki in the Sitalkuchi constituency.

Referring to former Cooch Behar Superintendent of Police Debashis Dhar, she said the person responsible for the killing of four people at Sitalkuchi has been nominated by the BJP as its candidate in Birbhum.

“You can remember the incident of Sitalkuchi. The triggerhappy Central force played Holi with blood. They killed five innocent voters. Which police officer did this? The BJP gave a clean chit to him and made him a candidate in Birbhum.”

Banerjee also attacked the Congress, CPM and the Indian Secular Front. She said, “The BJP, CPI(M), Congress and the other party, which is like the AIMIM, are all the same. They are basically friends.”