Mamata Banerjee running ‘mafia raj’: Amit Shah

The Asian Age.  | Rajib Chowdhuri

Metros, Kolkata

Shah observed that Ms Banerjee has been attacking the Election Commission as she can not rig the polls.

BJP president Amit Shah meet party candidates D.K. Mondal (Birbhum) and Ramprasad Das (Bolpur) during a rally in Ganpur, Birbhum district of West Bengal, on Monday. (Photo: PTI)

Kolkata: Rattled by Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s tooth and nail fight against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) implementation in West Bengal, BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday announc-ed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would be implemented before the NRC in the state.

Countering Ms Banerjee’s campaign and allaying the fears among the refugees about the exclusion of their names, he informed that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would give citizenship to all the refugees. Mr Shah accused the West Bengal chief minister of running a “mafia raj” which he declared the BJP would end in three months if it came to power in the state.

Mr Shah observed that Ms Banerjee has been attacking the Election Commission as she can not rig the polls. He affirmed that the BJP would scrap Article 370 the Constitution, which entitles Jammu and Kashmir a special status and Article 35A which allows the state’s legislature to define permanent residents, after returning to power at the Centre.

Before attending four Lok Sabha election campaign rallies in the districts, the BJP chief said, “The refugees would not have to face problems here. The Citizenship Amendment Bill will come first. All the refugees will be given citizenship. Only after that the NRC will be enforced. So the refugees do not need to worry. But the infiltrators should worry about themselves.”

He underlined, “Try to the understand the chronology. First, there will be the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which will be followed by the NRC. The NRC will however not be only for Bengal. It will be implemented across the country. Infiltration poses a threat to the country.”

Mr Shah reasoned, “Since Bengal is a border-state, the problem is acute here. At the same time it is also a menace to the country. Therefore the refugees will get their citizenship through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and they do not need to fear of the NRC.” He also retaliated to Ms Banerjee over her slur on the BJP of running a parallel government in the state by transferring officers through the Election Commission.

Mr Shah pointed out, “Mamatadi has forgotten that when she won the election here, the number of transfers were more than this. Larger number of officers were sent here as special observers. Only then she won the polls. What happened then? Was there any parallel government?”

He asked her, “When your goons and rigging are stopped, only then you see a parallel government. When you were the victim and the EC used to protect you, you used to feel good.” The BJP chief later told an election campaign rally in Krishnanagar of Nadia, “If we are re-elected to power, we will abolish Article 370. Should Kashmir remain an integral part of India or not? Should not Article 370 and 35A be repealed? But the Congress and Trinamul want these laws not be done away with.”

Mr Shah claimed, “Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have been demanding a separate PM for Kashmir. Can there be two PMs in a country? Ask her if she agrees with you all or not. She falls silent on it. She does utter a word because she will lose the votebank of infitrators.”

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