BJP chief Nabin slams TMC over infiltration, SIR row

Stepping up its pre-poll offensive ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, BJP president Nitin Nabin launched a blistering attack on the TMC Government, accusing it of endangering national security by patronising infiltration and intimidating voters during the SIR to malign the EC.

Addressing a BJP workers’ meeting in Durgapur on his first visit to the state after assuming the party’s top post, Nabin alleged a “deliberate attempt” by the ruling party to alter Bengal’s demography and “turn the state into Bangladesh”, warning that the issue posed a grave threat not only to West Bengal, but to the country as a whole.

“The TMC government has been patronising infiltration and protecting illegal voters, while intimidating genuine citizens. The TMC is endangering national security,” he alleged. Targeting the Mamata Banerjee government over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the BJP president alleged that the ruling party was spreading misinformation and fear to derail a constitutionally mandated exercise.

“While the Election Commission (EC) is determined to identify and remove infiltrators and fake voters, the TMC government is creating panic among common people and trying to discredit the poll panel,” he said.  “People of Bengal should know that the EC is not harassing anyone. It is acting against those who have entered illegally and those whose names do not belong on the voters’ list,” he added.

Nabin alleged that the state administration was being misused to undermine the SIR process.

“It is not the EC, but the state machinery - DMs, SDOs and BDOs acting as puppets of the TMC government- that is intimidating citizens to malign a constitutional authority,” he claimed. Placing the issue of demographic change in a historical context, Nabin invoked Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, asserting that Bengal existed in its present form because of his resistance to attempts to merge it with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

“Bengal was saved because Mukherjee stood firm against those forces. Similar forces are active even today,” he said.