‘They might impose a lockdown’: Mamata Banerjee warns ahead of PM Mo ...
A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sscheduled virtual meeting with chief ministers to discuss the fuel situation amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeon Thursday raised concerns about a possible lockdown in the country. She said such a move would not stop her or her party from taking on the BJPin the upcoming Assembly elections.“They might impose a lockdown. They will keep people confined to their homes. I fought through the lockdown situation in 2021. I can fight in any given situation,” the TMC supremo said, recalling the 2021 Assembly elections held during the Covid-19 pandemic.
LPG shortage and price rise allegations
While campaigning for TMC candidate Narendranath Chakrabortyin the Pandaveswar Assembly seat in Paschim Bardhaman district, Mamata also spoke about the shortage of LPG cylinders in the country.
“Yesterday, I strongly objected to the delay in getting an LPG cooking cylinder, which was taking 35 days after booking. Now they are saying it will take 25 days. I don’t trust them at all. What will people do for 25 days if they run out of cooking gas?,” Mamata said.
Adding to it she mentioned that, “People are being pushed to go back to basic methods of cooking and transport. Before PM Modi came to power, a domestic cylinder cost Rs 400, but today it is Rs 1,100. Petrol prices have also gone up. An alert has been issued – are they planning another lockdown?. Do you want to keep people confined to their homes? In 2021, we fought with full strength even during the Covid-19 lockdown. If we could fight then, we can face any situation now”.
The chief ministers of poll-bound states like West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have not been invited to the Prime Minister’s meeting on fuel supply scheduled for Friday.
‘58 lakh were deleted in the first phase’: Fresh allegations over voter deletion
Repeating her allegation of a link between the Election Commission and the BJP in removing genuine voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), she said, “They (BJP) had said that they would delete 1.20 crore names. 58 lakh were deleted in the first phase. Then, in the name of logical discrepancy, they put around 60 lakh people under adjudication”.
“If you add 58 lakh and 60 lakh, you would see that they have almost achieved their target of 1.20 crore. It means that the SIR was planned at the BJP party office. They have targeted seats where TMC won last time,” she added.
‘Washing machine’ jibe at BJP
“They (BJP) carry out their sinister plans late at night. The BJP is like a washing machine with the power to make things disappear. They have put voters into this ‘washing machine’ to remove their names from the voter list under the pretext of SIR. They are taking away the rights of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, SCs and STs,” she added.
Questioning the Election Commission for not releasing the list of deleted voters along with a supplementary list just weeks before polling, she said, “We demand the list to be displayed immediately. People who have been wrongfully deleted will then get the chance to appeal before the tribunal as per the Supreme Court’s order. I would urge my party workers to get in touch with such people. They will be provided free legal help.”
Mamata said more names would have been removed if her party had not protested against the SIR exercise both on the streets and in courts.
“It is to our credit if 29 to 30 lakh of the over 60 lakh names under adjudication find themselves in the list… It is because of our campaign and fight that these names would be on the list. But I want 100 per cent names to appear on the list as they are all genuine voters,” she said, adding that TMC lawyers would help those left out fight their cases before tribunals.
She also said that TMC would set up camps in every locality to help people whose names may not appear in the final voter list.
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