‘I am giving police a free hand’: Mamata Banerjee on West Bengal panchayat poll violence

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said she was saddened by the death of people in “sporadic” incidents of violence during rural elections. Banerjee also said that her government has given a free hand to the police to act against those behind the violence.

He said, “I am saddened by the loss of lives in sporadic incidents of violence during the panchayat elections… Elections were held in 71,000 booths, but there were no incidents of violence in more than 60 booths.”

The Chief Minister claimed that since the announcement of the election date on June 8, 19 people, mostly from his TMC, have been killed in poll-related violence.

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However, police sources put the death toll at 37.

“I am giving a free hand to the police to take action against those behind the violence,” she told reporters at the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’.

Banerjee also appealed for peace and harmony after the elections.

Mamata Banerjee’s politics full of atrocities: BJP on panchayat poll violence

Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday criticized West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for maintaining a reign of terror during rural elections and wondered why the central leadership of the Congress and the Left parties were silent on it.

A four-member BJP fact-finding team from West Bengal, led by a former Union minister, said the state unit’s demand to invoke Article 355 is “reasonable”.

“We had great respect for Mamataji when she defeated 34 years of Left rule in the state. Today, I want to gently remind Mamataji about her evolution in Bengal and national politics. She was a fighter But unfortunately, his government also broke the record of the Left with respect to misrule, anarchy and anarchy in the state.

The BJP leader told reporters, “Her (Mamata Banerjee) politics is now full of atrocities, which was not evident even during the Left rule.”

“Why are so many people getting killed? Why is there so much violence happening across the state? Isn’t it the responsibility of the state administration to ensure free and fair elections? This was once the scenario of Bihar, but the state has also moved forward. Said, “Mamata Banerjee has embarrassed democracy in Bengal.”

Hitting out at the opposition meeting in Patna, Prasad wondered why leaders of the CPI(M) and the Congress were silent on the ongoing violence.

He said, “Opposition parties including Mamata Banerjee were vocal that the BJP was posing a threat to democracy in the country. I want to ask Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury for their silence on the killings in West Bengal. “Their party workers are being beaten up, so why are they silent?” He asked question.

Prasad mocked the TMC chief over his social media post about the party’s victory in the rural polls and wondered whether Banerjee was “afraid of facing the media”.

“She holds press conferences without thinking. This time she has refrained from interacting with the media because she knows the truth behind the violence and blood-stained rural elections,” he added.

The BJP MP from neighboring Patna hoped that the fact-finding team would be allowed to visit the violence-hit areas of the state.

When asked to comment on the BJP leader’s demand to invoke Article 355 in West Bengal, the former Union Law Minister said, “Article 355 says that the Center must tell the state that governance is done as per the mandate of the Constitution. ”

“The Center will look into the governor’s report and then take a decision accordingly. But it is a reasonable demand,” he said.

TMC mocked the fact-finding team and said it was an attempt to divert attention from the party’s humiliating defeat.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “They should first send a fact-finding team to Manipur, which has been burning for the last two months. The BJP’s fact-finding team in West Bengal is an attempt to divert attention from its organizational failure.” ” ,