Opponents acting as BJP's agencies, will restore voter rights of disenfranchised citizens: Abhishek
Murshidabad (PTI): TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday labelled Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and two politicians as "agencies" of the BJP and promised to restore voting rights of disenfranchised citizens within a month of returning to power.
Addressing a poll rally at Rejinagar, Banerjee alleged that Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and AJUP president Humayun Kabir, besides the CEC, are the three "agencies" working to undermine people and strengthen the BJP in West Bengal's Murshidabad district.
He accused Kumar of "taking away voting rights" of the poor under the guise of logical discrepancies in electoral rolls, and warned that a weakened TMC would hurt the local people more than the party.
"If the Trinamool Congress is weak in this soil, the loss for you is much more than the loss for TMC," Banerjee, considered number two in the party's hierarchy, told the gathering.
Training his guns on Kabir, he referred to a purported viral video in which a person resembling Kabir, the chief of Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP), was heard talking of a Rs 1000 crore deal with the BJP to dislodge TMC from power in West Bengal.
"(The money was) not for the mothers and brothers of Murshidabad, not for roads, not for housing; but to put in his own pocket," he alleged.
He also claimed the purported video showed Kabir describing Muslims, who are in the majority in Murshidabad district, as "very foolish and easily misled".
Dismissing Kabir's claim that the video was AI-generated, Banerjee wondered why AJUP's state president Pirzada Khobayeb Amin resigned, if it was so.
"And why did Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM leave your side?" he asked.
After the purported video surfaced, the alliance between AJUP and AIMIM collapsed on Friday, barely a fortnight after it was stitched.
Banerjee also referred to Kabir's past political stance, asking why he had no issue in joining the BJP in 2019, the party that demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992, and alleged that AJUP is now acting at the behest of the saffron party in Murshidabad.
The TMC leader claimed that Kabir, who joined the Trinamool later, had met and told him (Banerjee) he would "only lay the bricks (for the proposed Babri Masjid in Murshidabad) and then throw them away."
Banerjee said that he had told Kabir, "TMC does not indulge in politics with religion. The BJP is doing politics with the Ram Mandir, and you are doing politics with Babri Masjid. Where is the difference? If you have to build the Babri Masjid, do it. You retire from politics. Both cannot happen together."
Kabir was suspended from the TMC after he announced his plan to build a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid of Ayodhya.
Alleging a wider nexus, Banerjee challenged Adhir Chowdhury, ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui, Asaduddin Owaisi and Humayun Kabir to 'give up' central security cover if they have no links with the BJP.
Siddiqui is the only MLA in the outgoing state assembly, who does not belong to TMC or BJP.
On the restoration of voter rights, Banerjee assured those dropped from electoral rolls that they would get their voting rights back within one month of the "Ma-Mati-Manush (mother-land-people)" government taking charge on May 4, when poll results will be announced.
"You are citizens of this country, citizens of this state. No one should be worried or panicked," he said.
Stepping up his attack on opposition alliances, Banerjee likened the Congress, CPI(M) and others to a food prepared with "rotten potatoes, onions and brinjal" that would cause stomach trouble.
Banerjee said he has taken personal responsibility for the district's development.
"The responsibility for the development of all 22 seats is mine. I am fulfilling the debt of love through development," he declared.
Addressing another election rally at Sainthia in Birbhu district, Banerjee claimed that of the 90 lakh names deleted in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, 57.5 lakh are Hindu Bengali voters.
"They are branding Hindu Bengalis as Bangladeshis and striking their names off the electoral rolls," he claimed at the rally.
Banerjee asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify the status of Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in Delhi since August 2024.
"Hasina has been given shelter in Delhi by you. Is she an infiltrator or a refugee?" he asked.
On the BJP's poll promises, Banerjee claimed that Modi had pledged Rs 2,500 per month to women if the party won in Delhi, but "not a paisa" had reached beneficiaries even after 14 months.
He termed the BJP's guarantees a "chit fund", alleging that "the seller disappears after the sale", and alleged that in Bihar, BJP leaders were demanding money back from pre-poll beneficiaries.
In contrast, Banerjee said, the TMC's Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, under which women from the general category receive Rs 1,500 and SC/ST women get Rs 1,700 per month.
"As long as TMC exists, no one can stop Lakshmir Bhandar," he said.
Banerjee also challenged the BJP to present a report card of the work done in Birbhum over the last 10-12 years and described this election as a "vote for revenge" against the BJP.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
