‘Ever seen dead walking the ramp?’: TMC’s Abhishek kicks off ‘Abar Jitbe Bangla’ yatra with EC poser

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee during a public rally ahead of the West Bengal Assembly election, in Baruipur of South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal. (PTI Photo)

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday started his month-long ‘Abar Jitbe Bangla’ (Bengal Will Win Again) yatra from Baruipur of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, targeting the Election Commission over the issue of “flesh-and-blood” people being declared dead in the draft voter list during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

With the state headed for the Assembly elections in three months, the three-time Diamond Harbour MP’s statewide yatra is being seen as an attempt to reach out to voters and galvanise the party’s rank and file.

Addressing the rally in Baruipur, the 38-year-old MP, nephew of TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and seen as the party’s second-in-command, made three persons allegedly declared dead in the draft voter list walk the “ramp”, saying, “We may question why we got this ramp made. It was built to make these three ghosts walk. Have you ever seen the dead walk the ramp? They are flesh-and-blood citizens of Bengal, cruelly declared dead by the EC just because they dared to vote against the BJP’s anti-Bangla tyranny.”

The names of the three who walked the “ramp” were revealed as Manirul Mollah and Maya Das of Metiabruz and Harekrishna Giri of Kakdwip in the district.

Banerjee added, “It’s not just three or four cases. There are at least 24 people in South 24 Parganas who are alive but were shown as dead in the draft voter list. The conspiracy to disenfranchise the people of Bengal stands exposed. As long as we are there, we will not allow a person’s right to vote to be taken away.”

“These people (BJP and EC) defame Bengal by claiming it is full of the Rohingya and Bangladeshis. When I asked Gyanesh Kumar (Chief Election Commissioner) how many Bangladeshis and Rohingya were removed from the electoral rolls in the state he started pointing fingers at me. I told him to put his finger down, telling him ‘you are nominated and I am elected’,” the TMC leader told the gathering.

He further said, “Here, people are dying and Gyanesh (Kumar) is expecting we would go to meet him with flowers. This is TMC. This time I went to Delhi but what will you do Smt Mamata Banerjee goes there next time?”

Setting the tone for the upcoming Assembly polls, he said, “This election is not just to defeat them but to teach these anti-Bangla people a lesson. Nearly 1.36 crore people are being forcibly summoned (for SIR hearings) by sending notices. If the BJP has enmity with us, let them send notices to me and other Trinamool leaders. How dare they send notices to people like this? They have declared a war against the people of Bengal without winning Bengal.”

Hinting at visiting the EC’s headquarters in the national capital again on the alleged flaws in the SIR process, the MP said, “I left the people who were in the field today, people who were on both sides of the road when we came from Patuli. If one third of them go to Delhi, Gyanesh Kumar and (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah will be washed away. They won’t be seen.”

Over the next one month, the TMC leader will hold roadshows, public meetings and community interactions across the state as part of the ‘Abar Jitbe Bangla’ yatra, a party leader said.