Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal
KOLKATA/BANKURA: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee Tuesday mounted a counterattack on home minister Amit Shah, questioning his handling of national security and demanding his resignation minutes after he accused Trinamool Congress govt of encouraging infiltration for “vote bank” politics. “If infiltrators exist only in Bengal and nowhere else, then who carried out the Pahalgam attack? Who was responsible for the blast in Delhi?” Banerjee asked at a public rally in Barjora, a town in Bankura district of western Bengal. “Are infiltrators present nowhere except Bengal? Or was it you who did it?” Banerjee repeatedly referred to Shah as “Dushasan”, invoking the Mahabharata figure symbolising misrule. “A person representing misrule has arrived in WB. You are the home minister of the country. You must resign,” she said. “Till my last breath, I will fight these Dushasans.” Shah had earlier alleged the Trinamool govt was allowing cross-border infiltration. Banerjee responded with a point-by-point rebuttal, saying border management falls under Union home ministry. “Which ministry is responsible for infiltration? I gave land wherever required. First do your job there,” she said, accusing BSF units of intimidating villagers after expanding jurisdiction into border areas. Banerjee attacked EC’s SIR of electoral rolls, calling it a “huge scam”. She alleged a BJP IT cell member was “sitting inside Delhi’s EC office” and deleting names while posing as an electoral officer. Responding to corruption charges, Banerjee said her govt acted against wrongdoing and asked whether those arrested were kept in jail.
