“If men are afraid, get women booth agents”, Mamata Banerjee tells Trinamool workers

She said it is cowardice to be afraid to sit in booths.

Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said at an election rally that if some of her male party workers were afraid to sit in booths as party agents for fear of being attacked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), then they should be replaced by women. She was speaking at an election rally when she said this.

Referring to the poll day in Nandigram on April 1, she said that some party workers had told her that they were afraid to go to booths as agents for the Trinamool Congress as the BJP workers had threatened them. “Don’t go to booths if you are afraid. But if you go, don’t return mid-way. If I go somewhere, I will stick to the job even if I were to be killed,” she said. Banerjee said that those who are leaving the battlefield are “kapurush” (cowards). The word kapurush specifically refers to coward men. Banerjee said that if the men were being coward and not brave enough to sit in booths, the party workers in the subsequent phases should appoint women in booths, implying that they are less likely to be afraid.

The Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee’s focus has been women’s empowerment not just this election, but also in the 2016 Assembly polls. Her government has made several women-friendly schemes including Kanyashree and issuing health insurance scheme (Swasthya Sathi) cards in the names of women as guardians and heads of families. In the party’s election campaigns too, women leaders and women’s empowerment has been a key focus.

[Cover picture: Mamata Banerjee’s rally on Women’s Day 2021]

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