Mamata to sit on dharna against campaign ban

Kolkata: The Election Commission banned Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for the next 24 hours on Monday. The West Bengal Chief Minister has...

Kolkata: The Election Commission banned Mamata Banerjee from campaigning for the next 24 hours on Monday. The West Bengal Chief Minister has tweeted “In protest against the undemocratic and unconstitutional of the Election Commission of India, I will sit on dharna (on April 13) at Gandhi Murti from 12 noon.”

 Earlier on Monday in Ranaghat the West Bengal Chief Minister said on Monday that those giving threats of more Cooch Behar-like killings should be banned politically.

She wondered what kind of human beings are those politicians ho say that there will be more Sitalkuchi-like incidents and that the death toll should have been higher.

Four people were killed in CISF firing after they “attempted to snatch the rifles of the central forces” during polling in Sitalkuchi, in Cooch Behar district in the fourth phase on Saturday, sparking a political storm in the state.

“Some political leaders are threatening more Sitalkuchi-like incidents, while others are saying that the death toll should have been higher. I am stunned and shocked to see such reactions. They should be politically banned,” Banerjee said, while addressing an election rally at Ranaghat in Nadia district.

Banerjee alleged that the BJP is killing its own workers and leaders and damaging their vehicles “to give a bad name to the TMC”.

Another man was shot dead outside a polling booth by unidentified persons in the same Sitalkuchi assembly constituency area.

Accusing the BJP of communalising the murder of young voters on polling day, Banerjee said, “You cannot succeed in your nefarious game to divide the people of West Bengal. This is not Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat.”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has alleged that Banerjee paid tributes only to the four persons killed in CISF firing because they were from the minority community.

Alleging that Shah had hatched the conspiracy of Cooch Behar killings with the full knowledge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the TMC supremo said, “After returning to power, I will order a probe to unravel the sequence of events, who were involved, how it all started, whether any rumour was at play...everything.”

She urged people not to vote for a party that encourages “firing on voters standing in a queue”.

Claiming that her government has given land rights to people settled in refugee colonies in the state, Banerjee said, “The BJP has sent 14 lakh Bengalis in Assam to detention camps. The same fate may await you if they come to power in West Bengal.”

“I consider myself inseparable from Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, SCs, STs, OBCs and all other communities. We don't exclude anyone in the name of caste, community or religion. Unlike the BJP, we consider everyone as humans,” she said.

“One of the BJP MPs, contesting the assembly polls, has damaged the windscreen of her car herself to give a bad name to the TMC,” she said, in an apparent reference o an incident in which BJP leader Locket Chatterjee’s car was damaged during a TMC protest in Chunchura.

Mamata Banerjee says she will introduce bill to ban those making violent, inflammatory remarks from politics