E-Paper
Darkest election in history, no polls in India if Modi wins: Mamata in Assam
Mamata Banerjee said all the agencies are working for one party and it looks like they have an attitude ‘of the BJP and for the BJP’
This year’s general election is the darkest election in India’s history and there will be no more elections if Narendra Modi becomes Prime Minister again, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed on Wednesday.
Addressing a rally ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Assam’s Silchar, Banerjee said, “All the agencies are working for one party, looks like they have an attitude ‘of the BJP and for the BJP’. We are fighting alone in West Bengal, the Congress and Left parties have joined hands with the BJP there. But we are not afraid, we’ll continue being part of the INDIA alliance and will lead a strong opposition,” she said.
This was Mamata’s first campaign in Assam after becoming West Bengal chief minister and she said that the death of former Union minister and Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev was the reason behind her absence.
The TMC is contesting in four out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam this year and Mamata Banerjee campaigned for the party’s candidate in Silchar. She said that this is just a trailer, the TMC will contest in all the seats in 2026 assembly election in Assam and if they win, they’ll remove the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and won’t allow the Uniform Civil Code and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“The BJP has divided the Bengali speaking people of Assam into Hindus and Muslims. If the Hindus and Muslims here join hands, they’ll have 70% of the vote share. We’ll unite them,” she said.
Also Read | TMC releases manifesto; promises to abolish CAA and discontinue NRC
She said that the TMC was protesting against NRC and to threaten her, the BJP lodged 6-7 cases against her in Assam. “How unconstitutional it was! I was protesting in West Bengal and they lodged cases here. I was not afraid of them at that time and not now, I’ll keep raising my voice,” she said.
Banerjee assured that they’ll solve the doubtful voter issue in Assam and claimed that this is another instrument of the BJP to create fear amongst common people. “Modi and Shah (Union home minister Amit Shah) have created a fear of detention camps in Assam and their aim is to make the entire nation a detention camp, where people live in fear and they rule,” she said.
Mentioning the violence in Manipur, Banerjee said that over 200 churches were burned, women were paraded naked on the streets and people are still expecting that Modi will give them justice.
“If you get news of my death today, you can believe, but don’t trust Modi. He won’t serve justice,” she said.
She said that BJP has closed all the shops selling non-vegetarian food in Gujarat, they are doing the same in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. “West Bengal is the only state where people are not judged on the basis of their choice of food, but the BJP is trying to destroy that culture too,” she added.
There was no immediate reaction available from the BJP to Banerjee’s comments.
Banerjee arrived in Silchar at around 12.45pm and she was accompanied by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, party’s Assam president Ripun Bora and other leaders. They claimed that BJP cadres chanted “Jai Shree Ram” to mock them.
After the speech, Mamata joined the local artists dancing on Bihu tunes, Manipuri dance and Bengali Dhanail on the stage.
