Tag: Trinamool

  • ‘Bell for Mamata’s departure has already rung’: Nadda lashes out at Bengal CM

    By PTI
    JAMALPUR/ASANSOL/KOLKATA: BJP president J P Nadda Wednesday hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the language she used against BJP top leaders and for disrespecting the culture of Bengal and said the bell for her departure has already rung.

    Contending that the BJP is the true upholder and protector of Bengal’s culture, Nadda said that the saffron party has worked to spread the messages of great philosophers and thinkers of the state who provided direction to the people of the country.

    Nadda said that it is BJP which has been spreading the messages of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahans, Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Syama Prasad Mookerjee throughout the country.

    “Are the words used by her for Modiji (PM), Amit Shah during her campaigns and the adornments she used with my name the culture of Bengal?” he asked.

    “So it is we who are insiders, we who are the protectors of Bengals culture. You (Banerjee) have disrespected the culture of Bengal while we have given it the appropriate respect,” the BJP chief asserted while addressing a public meeting of the party at Jamlpur in Purba Bardhaman district.

    Banerjee has often called BJP a party of outsiders, meaning a party of poeple from other states.

    Nadda claimed that the chief minister is doing ‘Chandi path’ (reciting hymns of Goddess Chandi) with the election in mind after denying permission for the immersion of Durga idol and holding of Saraswati puja in the state.

    “She may ring the bell (in a temple) as much as she wants, but the bell for her departure has already rung,” he said.

    Banerjee has politicised the police and criminalised politics in the state in her 10-year-long rule to give a free run to extortion, corruption and cut money culture, the BJP president asserted.

    “I urge you (people) to exercise your franchise to ban her (Banerjee) permanently for the sake of development of the state,” Nadda said at another rally at New Town in Kolkata.

    The BJP president said that on one side there is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who spreads the ho asks message of ‘sab ka sath sab ka vikas sab ka viswas’ for the collective development of 130 crore people of the country, while on the other side there is a political leader (Banerjee) who asks people of a community to get united.

    Why is she doing this and against whom? “Her (Banerjees) anxiety has reached such a point that being a chief minister she is asking people to gherao CAPF jawans,” he said.

    Maintaining that the Election Commission had banned Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours for her comment asking people of a particular community to unite, Nadda wondered at the kind of government in West Bengal for the last 10 years (under TMC) “which works for dividing the society”.

    He said, It is astonishing that the chief minister did not spare a word about the killing of first time voter Ananda Barman, a dalit youth at the hands of TMC goons at Sitalkuchi.

    “Barman was killed in the fourth phase of the ongoing state poll on April 10. The death of every person is unfortunate, including that of the four persons who died in firing by central armed police force personnel when a mob allegedly tried to snatch their firearms and the voting machine also at Sitalkuchi. Banerjee should have spoken of Barman also while she expressed her deep sorrow for the loss of lives of the others,” Nadda said.

    Reacting to Nadda’s allegation, TMC MP Saugata Roy said that the BJP presiident need not give lessons to the TMC government on the issue and claimed that Dalits in Bengal are in a much better condition than in BJP-ruled states.

    Roy said that the TMC after returning to power in Bengal will ensure assistance for everyone who died and there will be no discrimination.

    Paying his espects to B R Ambedkar, the father of Indian Constitution on his birth anniversary, Nadda alleged at a rally at Katwa that under Banerjee’s leadership TMC leaders are insulting Dalits so many years after Independence.

    Claiming that a woman TMC leader had recently used derogatory words against people of scheduled castes and backward classes people, he said “Mamata didi has not said a word castigating the leader for her remarks, proving the TMC’s anti-Dalit stance.”

    At another poll meeting at Asansol, Nadda said that Bengal’s turnaround is not possible until the people of the state have an honest leadership and claimed that this time all the combinations for a real “parivartan” (change) are in place.

    Maintaining that a BJP government has to take over for ensuring the economic development of the state, the partys president said “What the people of Bengal are looking for is not just a change, but to regain its lost glory and recreation of Sonar Bangla (prosperous Bengal).”

    Earlier in the day, Nadda took part in a well-attended road show at Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district.

  • ‘PM, Home Minister creating differences among people’: Trinamool complains to EC against Modi and Shah

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A TMC delegation met the Election Commission on Wednesday. The leaders alleged that PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are creating differences among people of different castes and creed.

    TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee claimed BJP leaders are making provocative statements.

    The delegation comprised MPs Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Pratima Mondal and Santanu Sen.

    “We’re also condemning PM Modi’s way of delivering speeches. It is below the standard of a Prime Minister. It is very unfortunate that the Election Commission has not taken any cognizance of it till now,” they said.

    This comes after EC had barred West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for the Assembly elections for a period of 24 hours t till 8 pm on April 13, following her accusations against the Central Armed Police Forces that they are acting at the behest of BJP.

    TMC on Wednesday also wrote a letter to the Election Commission alleging that the poll panel is “malfunctioning” and its state of affairs is “deplorable”.

    In a two-page letter, they accused the Election Commission of having a partisan approach while acting on complaints filed by TMC.

    “During this Assembly election, it is apparent that the Election Commission is acting in a partisan manner, absolutely in favour of the BJP,” the party alleged.

  • Bengal polls: NRC highlight of Didi’s campaign in remaining four phases

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday made it clear that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be an issue that she will use against BJP in the remaining four phases of Assembly elections in the state.

    It comes in response to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim in Kalimpong on Tuesday that there was no plan to implement NRC as of now.

    The hills of Bengal go to polls in the fifth phase and the huge Gorkha population of the region is apprehensive that NRC can go against them. Calling Shah’s assurance a lie, Mamata the cited the example of Assam, where people have been sent to detention camps over the issue of citizenship.

    “The moment election ended in Assam (earlier this month), the BJP government started issuing notices asking people, who were left out of the list of citizens, why they should not be evicted by implementing the NRC.

    Mamata Banerjee (picture left) meets relatives of those killed in CISF firingin West Bengal’s Sitalkuchi

    “They are issuing detention camp notices. Do not trust them. BJP should be ousted through NRC, NPR and only then, people will be able to stay in the country,’’ she said at a rally in Jalpaiguri.

    Mamata’s comments are aimed at refugee voters who migrated from Bangladesh in large numbers. S he also lashed out at BJP for “bringing outsiders” in the name of elections and spreading Covid-19 in West Bengal.

    A day earlier, Shah had said there was no plan to implement NRC in the region at the moment and even if it is, it would have no impact on Gorkhas.

    This community constitutes a considerable chunk of the electorate in the hills.

    Visiting kin of victims

    Mamata went to Sitalkuchi, after the Election Commission’s 72-hour ban barring political leaders from visiting Cooch Behar district ended. She met family members of the four persons killed in firing by CISF personnel on April 10.

    She also met relatives of a first-time voter, who was shot dead in a separate incident. BJP has claimed he was their supporter and killed by TMC workers.

    Without naming the Election Commission, which barred her from campaigning for 24 hours, Mamata said: “They did not allow me to visit Sitalkuchi for three days. I was not allowed to address rallies for 24 hours. The people of Bengal have witnessed this injustice to me and they will give a befitting reply to it in this election.’’

    The Trinamool Congress chief reiterated that after coming to power in West Bengal, her government will conduct a probe into the killing of the four persons and also the fifth person, who the BJP claims to be their supporter.

  • ‘PM Modi never talks about Trinamool-mukt Bharat’: Rahul attacks Didi and BJP

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  Debuting his campaign in Bengal on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tore into TMC and BJP. Taking potshots at TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, he claimed the Congress has never compromised on its ideology to gain power but the state’s ruling party has a history of joining hands with the saffron camp. 

    “Has the Congress party ever compromised with the BJP? Has it ever allied with the BJP? No. But Mamataji has done so,” Rahul said, adding that for his party, the fight with the BJP is ideological, not just political. 

    “Their (BJP’s) ideology murdered our biggest leader Gandhiji. We will die but not back down against this ideology. But for Mamataji, it is just a political battle,” said Gandhi, while addressing a rally at Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur.

    He urged the electorates to vote for the Congress-Left Front-Indian Secular Front alliance as neither the BJP nor the TMC can be trusted.

    Referring to the TMC’s previous alliance with the BJP, the former Congress president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi often talked about a Congress-mukt Bharat but he never said TMC-mukt Bharat.

    “The TMC is fine for them (BJP),” he noted. 

    “Their (BJP’s) battle is with the Congress’s ideology. They know Rahul Gandhi will never back down. I am not scared of them. In fact, they are scared of Rahul Gandhi. This is a fight for the future of Bengal. To save Bengal, you have to stop BJP’s advent.”

    Hitting out at Mamata’s governance, Rahul alleged that it is the only state where the poor people have to pay ‘cut money’ to get jobs.

    Taking a jibe at the Khela Hobe (Game On) slogan coined by Mamata, he said: “You are talking about a game on the street. I am talking about a game (students’ politics) in university and college campuses which you will not allow,’’ said Rahul.

    Accusing the BJP of trying to divide Bengal, he said the saffron party wants to implement the same practice that they followed in Assam and Tamil Nadu.

    “I have come here not to give a political speech. I have come here to save Bengal’s future,’’ he said. 

  • ‘EC must ensure level playing field’: Stalin supports Mamata, tells poll body to be neutral

    By PTI
    CHENNAI: Supporting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, DMK president M K Stalin on Tuesday said the Election Commission must ensure a level playing field for all parties and maintain impartiality.

    As Banerjee began a dharna in Kolkata to protest against the poll panel’s decision barring her from campaigning for 24 hours, Stalin said ‘faith in our democracy rests on free and fair elections.’

    In a tweet, the DMK chief said the EC “must ensure a level playing field for all parties and candidates and ensure that impartiality and neutrality is maintained.# Mamata Banerjee.”

    After the EC on Monday barred Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours, her party claimed that the poll panel was behaving like a ‘wing of the BJP’ and alleged the decision smacked of authoritarianism.

    The poll panel’s order came after Banerjee’s remarks against central police forces and her statement, which allegedly had religious overtones.

  • Bengal polls: Mamata stages dharna in Kolkata to protest against her 24 hours campaign ban

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday sat on a dharna in the heart of the city to protest against the Election Commission’s “unconstitutional” decision to ban her from campaigning for 24 hours.

    Banerjee, still confined to a wheelchair owing to the injuries she sustained last month, arrived at Mayo road here around 11.40 am and began her sit-in next to a Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at the venue.

    No TMC leaders or supporters were spotted nearby.

    A senior TMC leader, when approached, said, “No party leaders are allowed near the site of the protest. She is sitting there alone.”

    The Election Commission has barred Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours from Monday 8 pm for her remarks against central forces and a statement which had alleged religious overtones.

    ALSO READ | North Bengal firing: Instigation theory and conspiracy dominate Modi-Mamata slugfest

    Banerjee, lashing out at the poll panel, had said on Twitter that she would hold a protest against the poll panel’s “unconstitutional and undemocratic” decision.

    The TMC boss is scheduled to address two rallies after 8 pm on Tuesday — one at Barasat and the other at Bidhanangar.

    Meanwhile, a defence official here said that the area where Banerjee is staging a protest belongs to the army, and the TMC was yet to receive permission for the programme.

    “Just to keep everyone informed, we have received an application from the TMC for a no-objection certificate at 9:40 am today. It is still under process,” the defence spokesperson said.

  • Trinamool, BJP tussle to woo Dalits as Bengal politics sees class-to-caste shift

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: With West Bengal politics witnessing a class-to-caste paradigm shift, the TMC and BJP are engaged in a bitter fight to woo Dalit communities, a deciding factor in the ongoing assembly elections.

    Dalits, comprising 23.5 per cent of the state’s electorate and 25-30 per cent of its population, can influence results in around 100-110 seats in the 294-member assembly, most of which will go to polls in the next four phases.

    In a state where the electoral discourse has been dominated by class struggle during the 34 years of Left Front rule, both the TMC and BJP are now leaving no stone unturned to secure the votes of Dalits and other backward communities.

    Rajbongshis, living in Cooch Behar and other border districts in north Bengal, and Matuas, refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan and their descendants influential in 30-40 seats in south Bengal, are the two largest Dalit communities in the state whom the TMC and BJP are fighting to woo.

    Both the BJP and the TMC are championing the rights of Dalits and other backward communities.

    The state has 68 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 16 for Scheduled Tribes (STs).

    Both the parties have promised to include communities like Mahishya, Teli, Tamul and Saha in the OBC list as per the Mandal Commission recommendations if voted to power.

    While the TMC has nominated 79 Dalit candidates in the polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited a renowned temple in Bangladesh’s Orakandi, the birthplace of Matua spiritual guru Harichand Thakur.

    A TMC candidate allegedly likening Dalits with beggars has also emerged as a key election issue.

    The BJP had won a majority of the state’s reserved seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, prompting the TMC to go on a course correction drive and regularise all the refugee colonies and give them land rights, besides exploiting the delay and confusion over the implementation of CAA.

    While the TMC had won 50 of the reserved seats in the 2016 assembly elections, the BJP has made deep inroads into the SC-dominated areas, leading in 46 seats, including 34 in Matua-dominated areas, in the Lok Sabha elections.

    “The BJP has given a voice to the backward communities by speaking about their core aspirations. SCs will be a deciding factor in this election and will vote hands down for us,” state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said.

    Echoing him that caste will play an important role in the polls, senior TMC leader Sougata Roy, however, dismissed the BJP’s claim that it is fighting for Dalit rights.

    “The rise in crime against Dalits in BJP-ruled states shows that the saffron party is least bothered about them. In Bengal, on the other hand, it is misleading the Dalits,” he said.

    The CPI(M) blamed both the TMC and the BJP for taking West Bengal’s political discourse to a “new low” through divisive politics.

    Since Independence, elections in West Bengal, which boasts of being the cradle of the Indian renaissance, have always being fought along ideological lines, with religion and caste-based politics taking a back seat.

    The Left Front, which dominated the state’s political space for decades, discouraged caste politics, while SCs and STs, beneficiaries of the land reforms implemented by it, were its committed supporters.

    “Caste politics was never into play in West Bengal. The state had never witnessed such divisive politics as is the practice now,” Sugata Bose, noted historian and Harvard University professor, told PTI.

    “Realising that only communal polarisation won’t help, every party is seeking to woo Dalits, who they feel are key to win elections,” Bose said.

    Political analysts said that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had first thought of consolidating the votes of Dalits, apart from religious minorities, in TMC’s favour.

    She had nominated members of the Matua Thakurbari, the seat of power of the Matuas, as TMC candidates in the 2011 elections, paving way for her victory.

    The TMC government had formed various ethnic development boards across the state, which helped the party perform well in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 assembly elections.

    However, the BJP’s promise to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the RSS’s history of work among smaller Dalit communities like Bauris and Bagdis and the party’s strategy to give nominations to Matua Thakurbari members also paid off in its favour.

    Besides, the BJP also accuses the TMC of “minority appeasement” and favouring illegal immigrants over refugees, who had fled religious persecution in Bangladesh.

    Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya said that Dalits and minorities, despite being dominant by their numbers, were never key players in West Bengal politics as upper caste Hindus always dominated the political space.

    “The Left Front did not encourage identity politics. But Mamata Banerjee had first shown the road and now the BJP is treading it,” he said.

  • EC’s decision to ban Mamata from campaigning taken at behest of BJP: Raut

    The Sena #39;s chief spokesperson expressed solidarity with Banerjee, while terming as the #39;Bengal Tigress #39;.

  • Trinamool writes to EC, seeks strict action against BJP leaders for ‘inflammatory’ remarks

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The TMC on Monday urged the Election Commission to take strict action against BJP leaders who allegedly made inflammatory remarks over the Cooch Behar firing incident that claimed the lives of “four unarmed civilians”, shortly before the poll panel barred party supremo Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours.

    In a letter to West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab, the party said several BJP leaders, including party state Dilip Ghosh, were “instigating” violence with their warnings of more Cooch Behar-like episodes.

    Amid the polling for the fourth phase of assembly elections on Saturday, four persons were killed in Sitalkuchi area of Cooch Behar when CISF personnel opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals who had “attempted to snatch their rifles”.

    Citing the first instance, the letter said, “On April 11, 2021, at a rally in Baranagar, Dilip Ghosh said people have seen what happened at Sitalkuchi and warned that if anyone oversteps boundary, the incident of Sitalkuchi will be repeated. An official complaint has already been lodged with the CEO.”

    The letter, signed by TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, also has mention of similar remarks made by BJP leaders Rahul Sinha and Sayantan Basu.

    It also attached a screenshot of a tweet by BJP vice- president Arjun Singh and said that the saffron party leader had tried to “spread misinformation” by allegedly sharing a photograph of a CISF personnel injured in a langur attack in Jharkhand as a picture taken in Sitalkuchi.

    The tweet was also reposted by saffron party heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari.

    “The top brass of the BJP has been actively condoning the murder and brazenly suggesting that more innocent lives should have been lost at the hands of central armed police forces,” the TMC said.

    The party demanded that “appropriate legal action, including criminal proceedings, be taken against Ghosh, Sinha, Basu and others for their inflammatory statements”.

  • Bengal polls: Fierce rivalry paves way for fresh campaigning tactics and trends 

    Express News Service
    MALDA: In a nondescript village in Malda district’s Habibpur, four Tata Ace vehicles (locally known as Chhota Hathi), each carrying four to six giant loudspeakers, are roaming the area non-stop and playing a song — Pishi ebar tumi jao, ashche BJP (Aunty you leave, BJP is coming to power).

    This never-seen-before style of campaigning begins sharp at 8 am every morning and continues till the time the locals go home for an early dinner and call it a day.

    The vehicles, with lotus everywhere and photos of the BJP candidate in this Assembly constituency, often cross paths with those of their rivals, who are equally armed with loudspeakers blaring a 22-second piece — jora phuler bhangiye neta, sohoj noyko vote e jeta/bondhu ebar khela hobe (winning elections with TMC turncoats won’t happen mate, the game is on).

    Bengal has witnessed several high-voltage elections, but the style of campaigning has never been such noisy, ignoring the decibel restrictions prescribed by the pollution control board.

    “These vehicles even venture into the remote pockets. Throughout the day, we hear these songs. Both parties are trying to inject their own narratives into the mind of voters. If you pass by a roadside tea stall, you will see youngsters humming these lines,’’ says Swapan Debnath, a local grocery shop owner.

    A BJP leader in Malda said that in Habibpur itself, at least 50 vehicles are roaming around.

    “For this, we don’t need to engage manpower. One person is driving and songs stored in pen-drives are being played. But yes, you need to spend a lot for this kind of poll campaigning,” he says.

    The leader said each driver is given Rs 500 per day other than the fuel charge. This practice is followed in almost all the constituencies in North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri districts.

    The high-decibel campaign in north Bengal’s rural region, comprising six districts from Cooch Behar to Malda, is a part of the high-intensity psychological warfare the two rivals have engaged in.

    The saffron camp is desperately trying to create a perception that it has nearly captured power. TMC and its election strategist Prashant Kishore’s team are not lagging behind either.

    While BJP and TMC are following high-octane, technology-aided methods to influence voters at the grassroots, the Left Front-Congress-Indian Secular Force (ISF) alliance seems to be preferring the traditional way of reaching out to people.

    The alliance is giving importance to door-to-door campaigning.

    “We are holding street-corner meetings in remote areas and raising issues the common man can relate to. We are not giving any specific promises like ‘Sonar Bangla’ or providing door-step ration,’’ said Ali Imran Ramz, the Left candidate in North Dinajpur’s Chakulia constituency. He was referring to the poll promises made by BJP and TMC, respectively.

    In contrast to the BJP and the TMC campaign fight that primarily takes swipe at each other, the alliance is highlighting the issues of joblessness, anarchy in the field of education, poor healthcare system and the stalled industrialisation in the state.

    The psychological war between the BJP and the TMC to create perception seems to have an impact on floating voters in the rural pockets of northern West Bengal. 

    In Malda’s Ratua village, Zulfiquar Ali, a 28-year-old jobless youth who helps his father in farming, usually refrains from politics and other related issues.

    “But this time, I am keeping a tab on the happening and campaigns more closely than ever. It is an unprecedented election. Those who quite frankly expressed their political view even a couple of months ago have now gone tightlipped. Both sides are bluffing and both sides are getting their bluffs called out,’’ Ali said. “One of the results of this high-decibel propaganda war of exposing and exaggerating the weakness in the rival camp is that the real issues are getting buried.”     

    The jobless villager’s view is seconded by a teacher of a girls’ high school in Malda town.

    “The propaganda war is intense. It seems either both the BJP and the TMC are on the same ground because supporters are both camps stand clueless about the outcome. What I found is interesting that a section of TMC supporters think the party may not return to power, while supporters of BJP think Mamata is likely to sail through,’’ said the teacher who refused to be named.    

    The psychological war of the main opposition and the ruling party reached its peak after Nandigram went to polls on April 1.

    Mamata contested in the high-profile seat against her once trusted lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari.

    Once the election in Nandigram was over, the BJP’s high command, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah started trying to create an impression that Mamata would lose to Adhikari by a big margin.