Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Election Commission of India (ECI) has only removed the names of infiltrators from West Bengal’s electoral roll, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will throw them out of the country. Shah has been on a campaign rally spree in the poll-bound eastern state.
Addressing voters at Tufanganj in north Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, which borders Bangladesh, Shah said, “The ECI has only removed infiltrators from Bengal’s electoral rolls. The bigger task, to drive them out of the country, will be done by us.”
Shah’s remark came amid repeated allegations by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that the ECI removed the names of genuine voters under instructions from BJP leaders.
Elections to Bengal’s 294 seats will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29. All seats in the north Bengal region — where the BJP has secured more Lok Sabha and Assembly seats than the TMC since 2019 — will go to the polls in the first phase.
There were around 76.6 million voters in Bengal before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll began. It led to the removal of around 9.1 million names. This includes earlier deletions of around 6.3 million names and an additional 2.7 million voters declared ineligible after adjudication.
The number of names deleted is highest in the districts of Murshidabad and Malda, where the Muslim population is 66.28% and 52.27%, respectively — the highest in the state, according to the 2011 Census.
At the Tufanganj rally, Shah promised, “Once the BJP forms the government after May 4 (the day of counting), the borders will be sealed so tightly that not even a bird will be able to flap its wings.”
“An impregnable fence could not be set up by the Border Security Force because Mamata Didi (elder sister) did not give 600 acres of land. Our chief minister will acquire the land, and the work will start within 45 days,” Shah said.
The Union home minister accused Banerjee of not only neglecting the north Bengal region, comprising eight districts, but also appeasing Muslims.
“The size of the current state budget is ₹4,00,000 crore. She allotted ₹5,700 crore for Muslims and only ₹2,200 crore for the north Bengal region,” Shah said.
Wishing voters on Poila Baishakh (Bengali New Year), Shah said, “Don’t you think Mamata Banerjee should be ousted in this new year? Shouldn’t the TMC’s ruffians be driven out in this new year?”
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee countered Shah while addressing a rally at Bishnupur in south Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district.
“If Amit Shah is so strong and confident of winning, then I dare him to stay in Bengal on the evening of May 4 and watch the poll results,” Banerjee said.
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