Suvendu says TMC stir aimed to save Rohingyas as Mamata vows to fight BJP 'inch by inch' over Bengali migrants row

'I have now decided to speak more in Bangla from now on. Hold me in detention camps if you can before you throw other Bangla-speaking people in jail,' said Banerjee.

Kolkata: After winning the 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra by manipulating the electoral rolls, the Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to do the same in Bihar and West Bengal, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged on Wednesday, vowing to fight the saffron party “inch by inch” in her state.

The chief minister of West Bengal led a protest march in Kolkata to protest the harassment of Bangla-speaking migrant workers in the BJP-ruled states across the country. She said that 22 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal were working in other states, and they all had valid identity documents. “I challenge you to prove that Bangla-speaking migrants are Rohingya Muslims,” Mamata said at a rally held at the end of the protest march. She alleged that migrant workers from West Bengal had been detained in BJP-ruled Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Delhi despite being genuine citizens of India, branded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and, in several cases, had even been sent to Bangladesh.

Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly and a state BJP heavyweight, termed the TMC’s protest march as a march to protect Rohingya Muslims and other illegal migrants.

With about 10 months to go before the assembly elections in the state, the TMC is trying to cash in on the harassment of Bangla-speaking migrant workers from West Bengal in the BJP-ruled states to counter the saffron party’s aggressive Hindutva.

“What right does the BJP have in harassing Bangla-speaking people from West Bengal like this only for speaking in their mother language. They are being arrested and even forcefully sent to Bangladesh. Is West Bengal not a part of India?” she asked. The chief minister said that the state government had already compiled a list of about 1000 migrant workers from the state, who had been detained or thrown in lockups or detention camps in other states for speaking in their mother language, Bangla. “We are in the process of identifying the exact number of people they have forcibly pushed back to Bangladesh.”

“I have now decided to speak more in Bangla from now on. Hold me in detention camps if you can before you throw other Bangla-speaking people in jail,” said the TMC supremo.

She criticised the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls scheduled later this year.

"Whenever there's an election, the BJP starts striking off names from electoral rolls. I request the Election Commission not to pursue the BJP's agenda. I heard that they have deleted 30.5 lakh voters in Bihar. That's how the BJP won the Maharashtra and Delhi elections. They are applying the same plans for Bihar and Bengal,” she said. “But here (in West Bengal), we will fight them inch by inch and will let them know we will not give in so easily”.

Meanwhile, the BJP has asked the Election Commission to conduct a house-to-house survey to strike out Rohingyas from the electoral rolls in West Bengal.

“We have Rohingya Muslims in almost all places of West Bengal. We have told the Chief Electoral Officer to ensure that the voters' list is free from any Rohingya infiltrators. If in Bihar, Rohingyas can be removed from the voters' list, then the same should be done in West Bengal too. We have also told the CEO to hold an immediate house-to-house survey for the purpose," Adhikari said after he and other BJP legislators marched from the state assembly to the office of the CEO here.