Mamata paints 'SIR' and 'Vanish' at dharna stage, turns to art to protest voter roll revision
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday turned to 'art' as a symbolic form of protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, painting the words "SIR" and "Vanish" on the fifth day of her sit-in demonstration, alleging deletion of genuine voters.
At the dharna stage at Metro Channel in central Kolkata, Banerjee was seen drawing with pastel colours on a canvas with a green background placed on a stand. On top of the canvas, she wrote "SIR", while she inscribed the word "Vanish" in white in the middle.
The canvas had several small irregular circles and a larger outline resembling some kind of a map, gradually whitewashing portions of the green canvas, apparently symbolising voters being erased from the electoral rolls.
The chief minister was engaged in the drawing while Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was addressing a press conference in the city.
Banerjee has been staging the sit-in since March 6 to protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) carried out by the Election Commission of India, alleging that the exercise has led to large-scale deletion of genuine voters in the state ahead of the Assembly polls likely to be held in April.
The ruling All India Trinamool Congress said that the chief minister used 'art' at the protest site to express resistance against what it described as "anti-Bengal forces" and to highlight opposition to the “flawed” revision exercise.
Several supporters also used art in front of the dharna stage to express their protest.
In the past, Banerjee has also referred to the CEC as "Vanish Kumar" while criticising the poll panel's actions. However, she did not make any direct comment about the poll body chief during Tuesday's protest.
Over the past few days, the Trinamool Congress supremo has repeatedly accused the Election Commission of India of "dancing to the tunes of the BJP" and attempting to disenfranchise legitimate voters in the state, an allegation rejected by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
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'Last rites' of INDIA bloc: BJP on Cong-DMK fallout in Tamil Nadu
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Wednesday took a swipe at the Congress for extending support to Vijay's TVK in forming the government in Tamil Nadu and breaking away from its long term ally DMK, saying the party has a history of "betraying" its allies.
The saffron party also attacked the opposition INDIA bloc, claiming the alliance is "falling apart like a pack of cards" and lacks any common ideology or vision.
The Tamil Nadu Congress has decided to support TVK leader Vijay in forming a secular government in the state, sources said.
The decision to support the TVK was taken at an urgent meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of Tamil Nadu Congress late on Tuesday night.
Reacting to the development, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed the INDIA alliance had effectively come to an end after the declaration of assembly election results on May 4.
"There is nobody whom the Congress has not deceived. Imagine what they will do to the Samajwadi Party if they have done this to the DMK," he wrote in a post on X.
Calling it the "last rites" of the INDIA bloc, Poonawalla, in a video post, said, "It has become a Bharat free of the DMK, TMC and the Left, and now Congress has dumped the DMK for the TVK."
The BJP spokesperson alleged that the opposition bloc was formed solely out of political compulsions and personal ambitions.
"The INDI alliance never had any mission or vision. It was only about ambition for position, corruption, commission and obsession against Modi ji that they came together. But now it is all falling apart like a pack of cards," he said.
Questioning the unity of the opposition parties, Poonawalla said the alliance was absent in several states during the election.
"Where was the INDI alliance in Bengal, in Kerala, in Gujarat, in Punjab, in Delhi, in Haryana, in Karnataka? There is no INDI alliance," he said.
The DMK on Wednesday described the Congress move to extend support to TVK as a "backstab" by its long-time national ally.
Speaking to PTI videos, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Anadurai said, "The Congress party has decided to ally with the TVK, pledging their support to the party. I think they have backstabbed... They have backstabbed the people of Tamil Nadu. They've backstabbed the mandate given by the people of Tamil Nadu."
He said that the decision came even before the electoral process had fully concluded.
"Even before the ink on the returning officer's signature on the victory certificate dried up, they've chosen to go ahead with an alliance," he said.
Vijay's TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, falling short of the halfway mark. He needs the support of 10 MLAs to form a government with a simple majority. The results were declared only on Monday.
The Congress has won five seats, while the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has bagged four seats. The CPI and CPI-M have two seats each. The outgoing ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), has won 59 seats while the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has won 47 seats.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won only one seat, and so have the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), while the VCK has won two seats.
The Congress had fought the assembly polls in a pre-poll alliance with the DMK, while the BJP had a tie-up with the AIADMK.
