In a fiery press conference in New Delhi, West Bengal BJP heavyweights Sukanta Majumdar and Samik Bhattacharya tore into Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, branding her February 1-4 Delhi sojourn a ‘camera-centric drama’ designed to distract from serious electoral malpractices. The duo spotlighted alleged fake entries in voter rolls, vowing to purge Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingya elements.
Speaking at the party headquarters, Bhattacharya, a Rajya Sabha MP, insisted on swift identification and expulsion of these illegal entrants. Majumdar, the Balurghat MP and minister, mocked Banerjee’s protest trail: from state guest house lawns to Election Commission gates and Supreme Court corridors. ‘Pure theatrics for TV bytes,’ he said, adding that her media-savvy stunts backfired.
A Supreme Court judge’s pointed advice to Banerjee to exercise restraint stood out, Majumdar noted, as unusual for a chief minister. He grilled her on evidence for SIR-linked deaths, demanding specifics on district reports and death certificates forwarded to the CEC. Banerjee had paraded affected families before officials and cameras, then took the legal plunge herself in court.
Bhattacharya dismissed her border security alibis, emphasizing West Bengal’s challenging 2,200-km frontier with Bangladesh—riddled with waterways and vulnerabilities. ‘No security apparatus alone suffices; it needs resolve and citizen alertness,’ he stressed. The BJP accused TMC of terrorizing BLOs, citing a brutal assault on a woman officer’s spouse and blocking Form-7 submissions by party workers.
The violence toll is staggering, Bhattacharya claimed: 300+ BJP fatalities since 2016, with 56 murders in the 2021 elections’ peak 27 days, including heinous crimes against women. As TMC’s voter base erodes, leaders say it’s resorting to judicial and media maneuvers on SIR to intimidate rivals and cling to power. This clash underscores deepening rifts ahead of polls, with BJP positioning itself as the cleanser of electoral fraud.