West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday reacted sharply at the Election Commission\u2019s announcement of an eight-phase Assembly elections for the state, scheduled from March 27 to April 29, 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cElections in Bihar \u2013 where there are 240 seats \u2013 was held in three phases last year, Assam is having three-phase election this time, even Tamil Nadu which has 234 seats and the CPI-M government in Kerala that has 140 seats will have election on a single day. But West Bengal will have election in eight phases, for whose benefit has it been arranged this way?\u201d Banerjee asked. \u201cCan’t the Election Commission be a bit rational?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Banerjee alleged that she has learnt from \u201cBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sources\u201d that the list released by the EC has been \u201cas per the BJP\u2019s requisition\u201d. \u201cIt is according to what they [the BJP] wanted\u2026 I have seen the list that is in their party office, and it is the same list [as released by the EC],\u201d she said. She said that the “deep disrespect shown to the people of West Bengal” will be given a “fitting reply”.<\/p>\n
She said that elections had been scheduled in such a way that one district would vote in more than one phase. \u201cIn South 24 Parganas \u2013 where we are strong, elections have been scheduled in three phases,\u201d she said, adding that for practical purposes such as moving of Central forces from one place to another, this would have been considered inconvenient. \u201cI welcome your decision, we respect your constitutional position, but why has it been scheduled this way?\u201d she asked, adding whether this had been done on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Banerjee said that \u201cdespite the eight-phase election\u201d, \u201cwe will defeat you completely\u201d and \u201cdefeat all conspiracy\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also questioned the appointment of Vivek Dubey, who has been deployed in the state as special police observer. \u201cThe same person was appointed in the last Lok Sabha elections of 2019, and we know about all the drama he has done here, we know of all the games…,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Banerjee also alleged that the BJP has \u201cagency power\u201d and the power of the \u201cCentral government\u201d, but one “Central government cannot misuse their power for a state election\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Trinamool Congress chief further alleged that the EC should ensure there is no \u201cmisuse of money\u201d. \u201cThe BJP has already sent money to all the districts through agencies. Also, the Home Minister can work for the country, but he cannot misuse this position for the election in West Bengal. Neither can the Prime Minister misuse his position as part of the BJP for election in the state,\u201d Banerjee said.<\/p>\n
She asked why they had all come together \u2013 to fight against the only woman chief minister in the country. \u201cBring all your leaders. Why are you so scared of me? Why have all the organisations come together to fight me?\u201d Banerjee asked.\u00a0She called upon all the women in the state to \u201cbe prepared to give a fitting reply\u201d, adding that not just in 2021, this will also pave the way for victory even in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday reacted sharply at the Election Commission\u2019s announcement of an eight-phase Assembly elections for the state, scheduled from March 27 to April 29, 2021. \u201cElections in Bihar \u2013 where there are 240 seats \u2013 was held in three phases last year, Assam is having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1236,"featured_media":13167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99,387,57,752,582,201,49,751,92,583,46],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-amit-shah","9":"tag-assembly-elections-2021","10":"tag-bjp","11":"tag-cec-sunil-arora","12":"tag-cover-story","13":"tag-election-commission","14":"tag-mamata-banerjee","15":"tag-model-code-of-conduct","16":"tag-narendra-modi","17":"tag-top-story","18":"tag-trinamool-congress"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13166"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=13166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}