Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday reiterated her stance against the Farmers’ laws and asked the Centre to withdraw it pledging her support for the Punjab farmers.
The Chief Minister who was visiting the Bhawanipore Gurudwara on a public relations exercise ahead of the September 30 Assembly by-elections for the Bhawanipore seat said reacting to posers from a group of Punjabi ladies “I have always stood by the farmers’ cause … in this case also I have expressed my opinion and have asked for immediate withdrawal of the Farmers’ Bill … I have already told the agitators that I will always remain by their side in their fight against the oppressive laws.”
Speaking to a collection of Sikh gentry inside the most revered Gurudwara in Kolkata Banerjee said amid Khela Hobey slogans from a section of the assemblage that she always expected a close interaction between the Bengalis and Punjabis --- the communities that share a long mutual history.
Even as a section of the people said how the Punjab villagers too wanted Khela Hobey Banerjee said “Our mutual relationship goes back to the date of Azad Hind Fauz and the Indian freedom struggle … I had a chance of visiting the Andaman Cellular Jail where I saw that the most of the prisoners were from Bengal and Punjab.”
Banerjee is seeking election from the Bhawanipore seat after she was defeated at Nandigram by the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by 1,900 votes.
Banerjee has been trying to woo the non-Bengali population in Bhawanipore that constitute about a sizeable 42 percent. Out of this the constituency has a good 5,000 Punjabi voters.
The Chief Minister is likely to address a meeting of non-Bengalis on Thursday.
Out of 5 seats where by-elections were to be held the Election Commission of India has allowed polls in Bhawanipore seat only. Apart from Bhawanipore elections will be held to Jangipur and Rezinagar seats in Murshidabad district as well. In these seats a Congress and a Left candidate had died of corona well before the polls were conducted.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is deploying 52 companies of central forces to ensure smooth elections, sources said.
While 15 companies will be deployed in Bhawanipore, 18 and 19 companies will be deployed at Jangipur and Rezinagar respectively.