Kolkata, Apr 15 (PTI) Upping the ante against Mamata Banerjee’s TMC on Bengali New Year’s Day in poll-bound West Bengal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said while the Election Commission has removed infiltrators from the state’s electoral rolls, the larger task would be to drive them out of the country’s borders.
In a virtual address to supporters in Darjeeling’s Lebong where inclement weather prevented the landing of his helicopter, Shah promised prioritising resolution of the Gorkha issue and the withdrawal of all cases registered against community leaders and workers for violent agitations in the past, as soon as the BJP assumed power in the state.
Addressing multiple rallies in the hills and in the plains of Jalpaiguri, Alipurduars and Cooch Behar districts, Shah intensified the party’s anti-infiltrator poll pitch, while laying thrust on issues of corruption, syndicate and cut-money culture, women’s safety and the sensitive Babri Masjid construction row against the TMC.
Shah said that once the BJP forms a government in the state, it will “seal the country’s eastern borders in such a manner that even birds won’t be able to flap their wings” around the fences.
“Didi (Mamata Banerjee) doesn’t want to give 600 acres of land to the BSF required to build border fences. We have decided that once we have a BJP CM here, we will complete the task of fencing within 45 days on the required land,” Shah told a gathering at Tufangunj in the Bangladesh-bordering Cooch Behar district of north Bengal.
“And it’s not just about stopping outsiders from coming in. It’s also about those who have already infiltrated. While the EC has only removed infiltrators from the electoral rolls of Bengal, the larger task would be to drive them out of the country’s borders,” he added.
Nearly 91 lakh names have been deleted by the EC from the state’s voters’ list during the SIR exercise, triggering a major political dust-up ahead of the polls, with the TMC accusing the Commission of acting at the behest of the BJP.
Shah stayed put in West Bengal over the past few days and has held multiple rallies across the state in the run-up to the April 23 polls, when voters in north Bengal districts would exercise their franchise. The second phase of polling is on April 29, and votes will be counted on May 4.
In his pre-recorded address for the Lebong rally, Shah announced the withdrawal of all pending police cases against Gorkha leaders and workers after assuming state power.
“We will also bring about, with certainty, a permanent solution to the Gorkha issue here within the country’s Constitutional framework,” he said.
The Union home minister said despite multiple attempts in the last one-and-a-half years to resolve the Gorkha issue, Mamata Banerjee and her representatives skipped all three meetings, which were held in Delhi to address the problem.
“Frustrated with the state government’s non-cooperation, I chose to reach out to Bengal and appointed an interlocutor to mediate with all stakeholders concerned. But even there, Banerjee gave no time to the mediator. That’s because she doesn’t want justice served to the true Gorkha patriots,” Shah said.
“But you needn’t worry. Once the BJP forms a government here on May 5, we will resolve the Gorkha issue from within the constitutional framework. It will be our priority,” he added.
Accusing Banerjee of having a “step-motherly attitude” towards north Bengal, Shah said that her priorities lay elsewhere.
“Out of the Rs 4 lakh crore state budget, she gave Rs 5,700 crore to Muslims but allotted only Rs 1,200 crore for the entire north Bengal region,” he said.
Shah announced the inclusion of the Rajbanshi language in the Constitution’s 8th schedule and the setting up of a Narayani battalion, in honour of the community’s erstwhile Narayani Sena militia, in the state reserve police force once the BJP forms government.
Referring to the party’s poll manifesto, Shah announced a host of North Bengal-centric development projects aimed at women, youth, Rajbanshi and Gorkha communities and included the construction of a national highway connecting Darjeeling with the Sunderbans in the south.
Addressing a rally in Rajgunj in Jalpaiguri, Shah pledged that the BJP will recover every penny the TMC has “stolen from the people through corruption”, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no taint of graft charge even after two decades in the ruler’s seat.
“Modi ruled Gujarat for 12 years and is at the helm in the Centre for another 12; yet no corruption charge, involving even a penny, could be levelled against him. Vote the BJP to power in Bengal, and we will recover each and every cent that TMC leaders have stolen from people, along with interest, and return it to the poor people of the state,” Shah said.
He said once the BJP is in power, it will act against TMC leaders who “gobbled up Rs 300 crore by orchestrating the teachers’ recruitment scam” and the Rs 100 crore that was “stolen” from the flood relief funds sanctioned by the Centre for north Bengal.
“North Bengal is known for three Ts — Tea, Timber and Tourism. But Mamata Banerjee has added a fourth T — tears of BJP workers who have suffered immeasurably in the hands of TMC goons,” Shah said.
Shah called Aam Janata Unnayan Party chief Humayun Kabir’s suspension from the TMC “a drama”, and reasserted his stand that the party will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built on Bengal soil. PTI SMY NSD BDC SMY MNB
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