Mamata Hits Streets, Slams ‘Silent Rigging’ in Voter List Row
By KUNAL CHATTERJEE
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday led a major street march in central Kolkata, alleging “silent and invisible rigging” in the ongoing voter list revision process. Holding the Trinamool Congress flag, she walked from the statue of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar on Red Road to Jorasanko Thakurbari, the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore, where the rally ended with a symbolic oath to “protect democracy.”
Dressed in white, Mamata Banerjee led from the front, followed by the party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several senior Trinamool Congress ministers and leaders. Crowds lined the streets and rooftops to cheer the procession, with many capturing the moment on their phones.
From the rally platform, the Chief Minister tried to give respite to people by saying that her nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s name was not there in the 2002 voter list. “Abhishek was born in 1987. How can his name be there?” she said, adding that he first voted in 2006. She also remarked that even she might have to check whether her own name was on the list.
Seeking to calm public anxiety, she told people not to panic if their parents’ names were missing from the 2002 voter list. “Do not waste your precious lives. Apart from parents’ certificates, many other documents can be used,” she said, assuring that the Trinamool Congress would help and protect every eligible voter.
The party claims that three people have already died in the state due to stress over the “intense voter list revision,” including two suicides last week. The BJP, meanwhile, accused the Chief Minister of undermining the Constitution. Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari called it a “Jamati procession,” while state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the Chief Minister was enabling illegal Rohingya registrations and warned that “people will not accept this.”
Explore more opinions, analysis, and insights by Sujit Chatterjee .
Official Website of Sujit Chatterjee – Journalist, Analyst & Commentator
