News

Mamata Banerjee slams BJP over SIR deaths; says will never allow NRC, detention camps in West Bengal

KOLKATA: With the assembly polls scheduled next year in West Bengal, Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has intensified her attacks on the BJP. She was addressing a TMC rally in Murshidabad's Berhampore, a strong citadel of Trinamool Congress that has a 70 per cent Muslim population. Trinamool had bagged 20 out of the 22 assembly seats in the 2021 elections. She claimed that more than half of those who died in incidents linked to the enumeration exercise across the country were Hindus, and warned the BJP against cutting the very branch it was sitting on. Her remarks came a day after her address in Malda, where she criticised the BJP on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, NRC and the Central Governments reluctance to release funds for different schemes in the state. Addressing an anti-SIR rally in Berhampore ground on Thursday, she accused the BJP of indulging in eligious politics ahead of the 2026 assembly polls. The BJP is indulging in religious politics over the electoral roll revisions exercise. More than half of those who died because of SIR-related panic triggered by loss of documents, stress and workload were Hindus, she alleged adding, Dont cut the very branch you are sitting on. Amit Shah behind SIR ploy in Bengal, BJP dug its own grave by rushing exercise: CM Mamata Banerjee The TMC supremo also reiterated that she would never allow NRC or detention camps to come up in Bengal even if my throat is slit. She also alleged that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his party would have sabotaged and overthrown her government ahead of the assembly elections had she not allowed the SIR to be conducted. After opposing the Waqf Properties Amendment Act, introduced by the Narendra Modi government earlier this year, the Bengal government last week notified all Waqf properties in Bengal around 82,000 across the state to be registered in the central portal UMEED by 5 December. Today, Mamata assured Waqf properties would remain untouched. Waqf properties will not be encroached upon; the safety of minorities is my responsibility, the chief minister said. For the past few days, some miscreants have been spreading rumours that the state government has recorded religious sites as mosques or graveyards under Collector Khatian number 1. This is a lie, she said. Anti-Waqf Amendment Act protests had escalated into large-scale violence in Murshidabads Jangipur and Umarpur, claiming three lives, and thousands of villagers were left homeless a few months ago. Homes, shops and police vehicles were torched in villages. The chief minister said she would not allow bloodshed in Murshidabad in the coming days.