Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday sharpened her attack on the BJP-led Centre, accusing it of attempting to "snatch away the voting rights" of people through SIR and even describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "biggest infiltrator", PTI reported.
Addressing worshippers after Eid prayers at Kolkata's iconic Red Road, the TMC supremo described the upcoming assembly elections as a battle to protect democratic rights and Bengal's plural social fabric.
"We will not allow Modi ji and the BJP to take away your voting rights. We will fight till the end," Banerjee told the gathering, adding that she had approached courts from Kolkata to Delhi to challenge the process.
Her remarks come amid an escalating political confrontation over the Election Commission's voter roll revision exercise, which the ruling Trinamool Congress alleges has led to the deletion of names of genuine voters, particularly from minority-dominated areas.
"When you go abroad, you shake hands with leaders and speak of friendship. That is your choice, and I respect all countries. But when you return to India, suddenly the Hindu-Muslim narrative begins, and people are called infiltrators," she said.
"You then call for deleting names and labelling people as infiltrators. I would say you and your government are the bigger infiltrators," Banerjee said, in an apparent swipe at Modi and the BJP's repeated allegations of illegal immigration in the border state.
With the state heading towards a high-stakes assembly election, Banerjee used the occasion to reinforce her party's campaign narrative that the BJP was attempting to influence the electoral process through institutional mechanisms and polarising rhetoric.
Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the BJP's central campaign planks in Bengal, with party leaders repeatedly accusing the TMC government of encouraging infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh to consolidate its minority vote bank.
"Many people's names have been deleted from the voter list during the SIR exercise. I have knocked on the doors of the Calcutta High Court and even the Supreme Court. I still hope people's rights will be protected," she said.