Tag: Mamata Banerjee

  • Mamata Banerjee to skip meeting called by PM Modi with CMs to discuss Covid-19 situation in India

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not attend the virtual meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the COVID-19 situation with CMs, sources in the state government said on Thursday.

    Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay will be present in the meeting, they said.

    Banerjeee will be busy campaigning for the ongoing assembly elections in the state, the sources said.

    India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases too went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again, Union Health Ministry data showed.

    ALSO WATCH:

  • Mamata Banerjee likely to skip Covid-19 review meeting with PM Modi today

    West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip PM Modi’s Covid-19 review meeting with all the chief ministers. It is reported that she is busy with her election campaign schedule. The State Chief Secretary will attend the meeting on her behalf. Mamata skipped the meeting last time as well.

    The Prime Minister to interact with chief ministers at 6.30 pm. The meeting will be held through video conferencing. Fresh COVID-19 cases hit an all-time high in India on Thursday, surpassing the 1.26 lakh mark in a single day.

    According to the Union Health Ministry, the country recorded 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. With this fresh surge, the total number of infections has reached 1,29,28,574.
    With 685 new COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the toll in the country has mounted to 1,66,862.

  • ‘Two wheelchairs are quite famous’: Narottam Mishra takes a dig at Mamata, Mukhtar Ansari

    By ANI
    ASANSOL: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday said “the wheelchair is in a peculiar position” in an apparent jibe at the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader Mukhtar Ansari.

    Mishra speaking at an event on Wednesday said “…Two wheelchairs are quite famous. One has reached UP’s Banda from Punjab, the other one is here. One is in a wheelchair due to fear of losing, the other due to fear of getting beaten up. The wheelchair is in a peculiar position now.”

    Gangster-turned-politician Ansari who had spent over two years in a jail in Punjab in connection to an extortion case was on Wednesday brought to Banda jail in Uttar Pradesh by a special security team of Uttar Pradesh Police.

    ALSO READ | ‘At least keep up the farce of impartiality’: TMC hits out at EC over notice to Mamata

    While being produced in a district court in Mohali, Ansari was seen in a wheelchair. Upon being produced he told the court that he was not well following which the court directed the jail authorities to get his medical examination done.Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been wheelchair-bound after injuring her foot last month while campaigning in Nandigram for the Assembly polls. Following the incident, the chief minister has been campaigning sitting on a wheelchair.

    On Monday addressing a public meeting in Hooghly’s Debanandapur, Mamata targeted the BJP and said: “BJP, cannot you find a local candidate to contest elections? They do not have locals. All their people are borrowed from either TMC or CPM. They are sprinkling money like water from a hosepipe. I will win Bengal on one leg and in the future, will get victory in Delhi on two legs.”

  • ‘At least keep up the farce of impartiality’: TMC hits out at EC over notice to Mamata

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday hit out at the Election Commission over its notice to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, seeking to know what action the poll panel has taken on the complaints filed against the BJP.

    TMC spokesperson Mahua Moitra said the EC should “at least keep up the farce of impartiality”.

    “Mamatadi issued notice by @ECISVEEP on @BJPs complaint, What about TMC complaints of 1. Video evidence of BJP candidate distributing cash 2. Cash coupons distributed to attend BJP mtng & vote,” she tweeted.

    The EC issued notice to Banerjee for allegedly making an appeal to the voters along the communal lines while campaigning in Hooghly.

    The Election Commission issued a notice to Mamata on Wednesday for her alleged appeal to Muslim voters while campaigning in Hooghly to not allow their votes get split among different political parties.

    She has been asked to respond to the notice within the next 48 hours.

    The notice said the poll panel had received a complaint from a BJP delegation alleging that on April 3, Banerjee appealed to the Muslim voters not to let their votes get split among different political parties during the election rally at Tarakeshwar in Hooghly.

    “Kanyashree, Kanyashree, there are scholarships up to the university. There is Shishashree for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For general category there is Swami Vivekananda Scholarship. There is Aikyashree for my brothers and sisters belonging to the minority community and I have given it to 2 crores and 35 lakh beneficiaries.

    I am requesting my minority brothers and sisters with folded hands don’t divide the minority votes after listening to the devil (shaitaan) person who had taken money from the BJP.

    “He passes many communal statements and initiates clashes between the Hindu and the Muslims. He is one of the apostles of the BJP, a comrade. The comrades of CPI-M and BJP are roaming around with the money given by the BJP to divide the minority votes.

    Please don’t allow them to do so. Keep in mind that if the BJP comes into the government then you will be in severe danger.

    “I also will tell my Hindu brothers and sister not to make division amongst yourselves as Hindu and Muslim after listening to the BJP,” the notice quoted Banerjee as saying.

    The EC said it found her speech violating the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the model code

  • ‘BJP seeks to change history to suit its agenda’: Mamata lashes out at saffron party

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked the BJP claiming that the party is out to change the history of several places to suit its agenda and will impose a totalitarian regime that will dictate what people should eat and how they should dress.

    Without naming Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Banerjee said that a good-looking man from Gujarat has predicted that the BJP will win 68-70 of the 91 seats that went to polls in the first three phases in the state, but actually it will not get more than 25 seats.

    “They (BJP) have renamed stations having great past. They have renamed a cricket stadium after the prime minister. The day is not far when they will change the name of you and me. They are out to change the history of places to suit their agenda,” said Banerjee in the last of her election meetings of the day.

    The chief minister of West Bengal, however, did not mention any rail station or place.

    On February 24, the newly-refurbished arena in Ahmedabad’s Motera area was renamed as Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium.

    It was earlier called the Sardar Patel Stadium.

    Likening Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah to “dictators like Hitler, Mussolini and Donald Trump”, Banerjee claimed that they want to “impose a totalitarian regime which will dictate what we should eat, how we should dress and what we should think. Don’t let them come (to power in West Bengal)”.

    Addressing a public meeting in Tollygunge assembly constituency in Kolkata, she alleged that the BJP was behind closing down of a heritage fair like the Poush Mela of Santiniketan and levelling of “false charges” against Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen.

    Banerjee said that “a good looking man from Gujarat predicted that the BJP will win 68-70 of the 91 seats that went to polls in the first three phases in the state.

    She did not name Shah who said earlier in the day at Domjur in Howrah district that the BJP is confident of winning 63 to 68 seats in the first three phases of elections.

    “The same person had got 15 seats in Chhattisgarh after predicting 65 seats in 2019, one-third seats in Maharashtra after predicting two-thirds. Even by a conservative estimate, the BJP won’t reach beyond 25 seats in the first three phases (in Bengal),” she said.

    The TMC leader charged Modi and Shah with running a “syndicate which can fund countless choppers and chartered planes to ferry one lakh BJP leaders to Bengal for poll campaign and book all major hotels in Kolkata and elsewhere for their stay.”

    On Modi addressing her as “Didi O Didi” in a sarcastic tone in his poll campaigns, Banerjee said that he does this as he considers her as a threat to his party.

    “He is free to address me that way 100 times. It will only make me more important and belittle him,” the TMC boss said.

    Alleging that the BJP is using money power in the election, she claimed that the saffron party had offered Rs 25 crore to a film star for not campaigning for the TMC, but the actor refused.

    Banerjee urged people to ensure that her party gets more than 200 seats in the eight-phase election to the 294- member state assembly.

    She alleged that the Election Commission has arranged for an eight-phase poll to enable BJP leaders to campaign even on a day of polling.

    Banerjee was addressing the public meeting in support of TMC candidate and minister Aroop Biswas from Tollygunge where Union minister Babul Supriyo, a singer-turned- politician, is the BJP candidate.

    The CM described Supriyo as an outsider in Tollygunge, “who has been brought from Asansol (his Lok Sabha constituency) for reasons best known to his party.”

    Stating that she did not want to make any negative comment on “a good singer”, Banerjee said, “But I am appalled by his utterances and his behaviour in recent times as a BJP leader.”

    She accused Supriyo of speaking in favour of a ponzi firm, against which a CBI probe is going on, years back, and alleged that BJP MP and assembly election candidate Locket Chatterjee had also hobnobbed with another scam-tainted chit fund company.

  • EC notice to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for allegedly violating model code

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission issued a notice to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday for her alleged appeal to Muslim voters while campaigning in Hooghly to not allow their votes get split among different political parties.

    She has been asked to respond to the notice within the next 48 hours.

    The notice said the poll panel had received a complaint from a BJP delegation alleging that on April 3, Banerjee appealed to the Muslim voters not to let their votes get split among different political parties during the election rally at Tarakeshwar in Hooghly.

    “Kanyashree, Kanyashree, there are scholarships up to the university. There is Shishashree for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For general category there is Swami Vivekananda Scholarship. There is Aikyashree for my brothers and sisters belonging to the minority community and I have given it to 2 crores and 35 lakh beneficiaries.

    I am requesting my minority brothers and sisters with folded hands don’t divide the minority votes after listening to the devil (shaitaan) person who had taken money from the BJP.

    “He passes many communal statements and initiates clashes between the Hindu and the Muslims. He is one of the apostles of the BJP, a comrade. The comrades of CPI-M and BJP are roaming around with the money given by the BJP to divide the minority votes.

    Please don’t allow them to do so. Keep in mind that if the BJP comes into the government then you will be in severe danger.

    “I also will tell my Hindu brothers and sister not to make division amongst yourselves as Hindu and Muslim after listening to the BJP,” the notice quoted Banerjee as saying.

    The EC said it found her speech violating the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the model code.

  • ‘BJP’s CRPF’ harassing people, preventing voters from entering booths, alleges CM Mamata Banerjee

    By PTI
    BANESWAR: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that “BJP’s CRPF” was harassing and killing people besides obstructing voters from entering polling stations in the state at the behest of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    Addressing a rally here in Cooch Behar district, she accused a section of the central force of molesting women and beating people during the ongoing assembly elections.

    Launching a blistering attack on Shah, the TMC surpremo charged him with failing to protect lives of the security personnel in naxal ambush in Sukma and earlier in terrorists attack in Pulwama and instead seeking votes in other states for his party BJP.

    Banerjee facing a stiff challenge from the saffron party in the ongoing Bengal elections appealed to the voters to ensure more than 200 seats for the TMC “or else the BJP will bribe the ‘traitors’ of my party to crossover to their side”.

    Polls are taking place for 294-member Bengal house.

    “The ‘BJP’s CRPF’ is beating women, harassing and killing people. They are obstructing voters from entering polling booths and to cast their votes. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has instructed them to do so.

    “I have never given such orders to the police being the home minister (of West Bengal),” Banerjee said at the rally.

    ALSO READ | BJP to win 63-68 seats in first three phases of polling in Bengal: Amit Shah

    Continuing with her tirade against the cental force, she said “I respect the CRPF. But, I do not have respect for those among them who are working at the behest of the BJP. The CRPF should not obstruct the public from casting their votes.”

    Referring to death of 22 security personnel in naxal attack in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma-Bijapur three days back, she asked what steps have been taken for those who lost their lives? She said that instead of doing anything for those killed in the attack, Shah was asking electors (in different states having elections) to vote for his party.

    “You (Shah) failed to protect lives of your policemen in Pulwama and in Sukma. What has the government done for those killed in Sukna? On one side they are killing people and on another side you are asking voters to cast vote to your party. You should be ashamed of doing so,” she said taking a swipe at the union home minister.

    Claiming that more than 10 people have been killed in the state during the ongoing polls, Banerjee urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that the CRPF personnel play a responsible role and no such killing take place in the forthcoming five phases.

    ALSO READ | I will win Bengal with one leg and Delhi with two: Mamata Banerjee

    “More than 10 people have been murdered. This never happened during my time. We all want peaceful polling so that people can cast their vote. We want peaceful, free and fair elections.

    “The ECI is running the administration. Please see that nobody is murdered and I will also request you to please see that the CRPF, CISF, BSF or ITBP don’t harass the people. Nobody is allowed to harass the people and women,” she said.

    A schoolgirl was allegedly molested by a central force police personnel in Tarakeswar Monday following which the EC had removed him from duty.

    A probe is on in the matter.

    “Several cases of molestation of girls by the central forces personnel have surfaced.

    Why are they (central forces) molesting girls? Complaints have been lodged and I will request you (EC) to please take care of that also,” she said.

    Referring to Tuesday’s incident when party’s Arambagh candidate Sujata Mondal was chased in an open field by people wielding bamboo sticks and iron rods and then hitting her on the head with sticks, the CM alleged that some senior police officers have entered into an “understanding” (with the BJP).

    She said activities of such policemen were under the scanner.

    “Lower-rank policemen have nothing to do. It’s those in the higher ranks who have entered into an understanding with them. I have realised this during yesterday’s polling in Arambagh (where party candidate Sujata Mondal was allegedly attacked).

    “I have also noticed role of Officer-in-charge of Arambagh police station. We are keeping an eye on such things,” she said.

    Five candidates, including two women, were assaulted, while clashes between rival political groups erupted during the third phase of polling in the state on Tuesday.

    Cautioning the voters not to trust the policemen, Banerjee advised them to put up resistance in groups if prevented by the CRPF from going to polling stations to cast their votes.

    “Do not trust the police because during the elections they have been influenced by the BJP.

    If needed form groups and gheraoe them and keep them busy in talking, while others will quickly go and cast their votes,” she suggested.

    “I will win wherever I contest from. But, you (voters) will have to ensure we get over 200 seats to protect democracy, or the BJP will use their money power to buy traitors,” she said.

    Earlier, speaking in the same rally, urging voters to vote for party candidate Binay Krishna Barman in Cooch Behar Uttar (SC) constituency, Banerjee hit out at the BJP, stating they were befooling people in the name of implementing Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registers of Citizens (NRC).

    She alleged that if the BJP is voted to power in Bengal they will put people in detention camps like the 14 lakh Bengalis in Assam.

    “All these promises of the BJP are false. They will never implement them. And if you vote for you will be put in detention camps like the 14 lakh Bengalis in Assam,” she said.

    The CM further accused the BJP of spreading misinformation about raising a Narayani Sena central paramilitary force after the polls citing an unverified RTI reply by the Centre.

    The demand for Narayani Sena has been a long-standing demand of the Rajbanshi community in north Bengal.

  • Mamata heaping abuse on me as she is frustrated over TMC’s impending defeat, says PM Modi

    By PTI
    HOWRAH: Lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the TMC supremo’s appeal to Muslims to vote en bloc for her party reflects fears that minority votes are slipping out of her hands.

    Modi, who addressed two public meetings during the day, also pointed out that a similar appeal to Hindus by his party would have drawn the wrath of the media and the Election Commission.

    Asserting that Banerjee has problems with people sporting a ‘Tilak’ and wearing saffron, Modi said her angry reactions indicate that she has already lost the elections.

    Accusing the Trinamool Congress dispensation of indulging in rampant corruption, he said, “Didi has started a new tax in Bengal – Bhaipo (nephew) Service Tax!”.

    “Didi recently asked all Muslims to vote en bloc for her. It shows that the Muslim vote bank is slipping out of her hands. Had we said the same thing that all Hindus should unite, everybody would have criticised us. The EC would have sent us notices. We would have been censured,” Modi said.

    The BJP had on Monday approached the Election Commission, seeking action against Banerjee, alleging that she violated the Representation of the People’s Act by asking Muslims to come together and vote for her party in the assembly polls.

    Taking a dig at Banerjee for rhetorically questioning whether BJP leaders predicting their victory were Gods or superhumans, Modi said no one needs to be a superhuman to predict his party’s victory as the wave blowing in favour of the saffron camp spoke for itself.

    “There is no need to trouble God to find out who is winning Janata Janardhana (public), in the form of God, has given their response. Didi’s exit is imminent. That is clear after the first two phases of polling,” the prime minister said at a rally in Cooch Behar.

    Modi also claimed that Banerjee has hurt Bengalis’ self-esteem by stating that people are lured to his rallies with money.

    “For 10 years, women, Dalits, backward classes, farmers and tea workers were subjected to injustices, but Didi, you chose to be a mute spectator. Didi has started a new tax in Bengal – Bhaipo (nephew) Service Tax! Today, for this reason, the same words are coming from every corner of Bengal – Chalo Paltai, Chalo Paltai (let us bring the change),” he said.

    Reacting to the ‘Bhaipo Service Tax’ jibe, senior TMC minister Firhad Hakim said that such comments are reflections of his frustration sensing defeat.

    “The BJP has made it a habit of making personal attacks and taking the political discourse to a new low. The repeated attacks on our young leader are a reflection of frustration. There is no such tax in Bengal,” he said without naming anyone.

    The PM further said that “Didi, sensing defeat, has turned jittery” and was criticising everybody and everything — from the EC to electronic voting machines (EVMs), the top leader said.

    Referring to some TMC leaders’ claim that Banerjee might contest elections from his Lok Sabha seat, Varanasi, in 2024, Modi mocked the TMC boss, saying that “this proves that Didi has accepted her defeat in Bengal and is looking for another seat”.

    He also asserted that Banerjee’s claims that social schemes started by her will be stopped if the BJP comes to power were “false and baseless”, and gave assurances that none of them will be discontinued.

    “If anything gets stopped, that will be ‘tolabaji’ (extortion) and cut-money (bribes),” he said.

    At his second rally in Howrah, the PM said Banerjee was “heaping abuse” on him as she was “frustrated” over her party’s impending defeat in the state elections.

    He noted that people in Bengal were speculating that the TMC will disintegrate after its defeat on May 2, the day scheduled for counting of votes.

    Maintaining that the TMC dispensation has institutionalised “ease of crime and ease of loot”, the prime minister said that a BJP government, instead, will provide people “ease of living and business”.

    Hitting out at the CM for her jibe over his Bengali pronunciation, the PM said that he makes it a point to wish all MPs and chief ministers on their birthdays by writing to them in their mother tongue.

    “I have started this tradition, but that does not mean I have great knowledge of all languages. I have respect for all the languages. I know that I make mistakes while speaking Bengali, but despite such errors, I respect Bangla (language),” he said, stressing that it “felt good” when he wrote to Banerjee in Bengali and she replied in Gujarati.

    In yet another caustic remark, Modi, recalling an instance where a bull had come in the way of the TMC chief’s roadshow, said, “Not just Bengal or Nandigram (where Banerjee is her party’s candidate), but ‘Nandi’ (the sacred companion of Lord Shiva) has also expressed its anger against her.”

    Lamenting that MSME industries, which once flourished in Bengal, are in shambles under the TMC dispensation, he said that despite the rising demands for country-made products, the enterprises had to shut shop owing to the misrule of successive governments.

    “In order to free the middle-class people from the clutches of construction mafia, the Centre has brought the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA), but Didi did not enforce it in West Bengal as she under pressure from real-estate mafia,” the prime minister said.

    Assuring people that work to bring relief to the poor, middle-class, farmers and workers will be taken up at the very first cabinet meeting, if the saffron party is voted to power, he insisted that the double-engine government of the BJP would mean “double work with double speed”.

  • BJP men forcibly occupying booths, attacking TMC candidates, says Mamata as 3rd phase underway

    By PTI
    KALCHINI: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed BJP activists were forcibly occupying polling booths and attacking TMC members, including party candidates, and asserted that she would not get bogged down by such “intimidatory tactics”.

    Addressing a public meeting here in Alipurduar district, the TMC supremo said her party’s nominee in Arambagh, Sujata Mondal, was chased and hit on head near a polling booth by saffron party workers.

    “They have inflicted serious injury on our Scheduled Caste candidate Sujata, when she visited a booth. They also hit another candidate in Khanakul. In Canning East, security forces prevented our nominee Shaukat Mollah from entering a booth. There had been numerous such instances of attack on our candidates, party workers across the state,” Banerjee said.

    The CM further stated that she has received at least 100 complaints of assault and violence since morning, and the EC has been duly informed but to no avail.

    Alleging that a deep-rooted conspiracy has been hatched by the BJP leadership in Delhi after experiencing “poor turnout” in rallies, Banerjee said “Security forces have been asked not to resist booth capturing.”

    “Four of our activists have been murdered since the elections began, but no action has been taken. But you (BJP) cannot terrorise us, intimidate us by such acts,” Banerjee added.

  • Sporadic violence reported in third phase of West Bengal Assembly elections

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Sporadic incidents of violence were reported on Tuesday in some areas where voting is underway in the third phase of the West Bengal assembly elections, even as the overall situation by and large remained peaceful with 34.71 per cent turnout recorded till 11 am, officials said.

    They said that voting is underway with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols in 16 seats in South 24 Parganas district (part II), seven in Howrah (part I) and eight in Hooghly (part I). “Voter turnout of 34.71 per cent was recorded till 11 am in 31 seats,” an EC official said.

    Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged “blatant misuse” of central forces to “influence voters”. “The blatant misuse of Central forces continues unabated. Despite us repeatedly raising this issue, @ECISVEEP continues to be a mute spectator while men in uniform are being misused at several places to openly intimidate TMC voters & influence many to vote in favour of one party,” she tweeted.

    She shared a screengrab of a scuffle between BJP and TMC supporters in Goghat constituency. TMC turncoat and BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour seat, Dipak Haldar alleged that his former party is not allowing voters to come to polling stations. “TMC men are not allowing BJP supporters to come out and vote freely, and unfortunately, the central forces are mute spectators,” he said.

    The ruling party in the state has dubbed the allegations as “baseless”.

    In Dhanekhali seat, state minister Asima Patra accused the central forces of high-handedness and alleged that voters were being stopped from coming to the polling stations by the BJP “goons”, an allegation dismissed by the saffron party.

    In Khanakul, TMC candidate Najmul Karim was allegedly assaulted by the BJP activists and slogans were raised against him. Later, central forces rescued him from the area. In Arambagh, Sujata Mondal Khan accused the BJP of threatening the TMC supporters, an allegation denied by the saffron party.

    Police said that a BJP supporter’s family member was allegedly killed in Hooghly district, hours before the commencement of polling in the area. Madhabi Adak succumbed to her injuries sustained while protecting her son from a few men who barged into their house, they said.

    Adak’s family accused that the TMC was behind the incident, a charge denied by the ruling party. Four EVMs and an equal number of VVPATs were found in the house of a TMC leader in Uluberia Uttar assembly seat in Howrah district, following which a poll official was suspended.

    Long queues were seen outside polling stations, where voting will continue till 6.30 pm. Over 78.5 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 205 candidates, including BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, state minister Ashima Patra and CPI(M) leader Kanti Ganguly.

    The Election Commission has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC in all the constituencies, declaring them as ‘sensitive’.