BJP, RSS activists entering West Bengal sporting uniform of central forces: Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata, May 12: Iterating that the BJP government was using the central forces to influence voters in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said she feared that BJP and RSS activists have entered the state, sporting the uniform of the forces, to conduct polling.
"I do not disrespect the central forces. But they are being instructed to influence the voters. On the pretext of deploying central forces in West Bengal, the BJP is forcefully pushing BJP and RSS activists here.
"I doubt that some RSS activists in (central forces') uniform are being pushed into West Bengal," Banerjee said while addressing a rally in Basanti area of South 24 Parganas district here.
Banerjee also said that a Trinamool Congress worker was injured in the firing by the central forces officers in- charge of the security of BJP candidate Bharati Ghosh in Ghatal constituency.
"Today, there was a firing by the central forces inside a booth. I have heard that one of my brothers, belonging to the minority community, was injured," she said.
Banerjee also alleged that central forces personnel were asking voters standing in queues to exercise franchise in favour of the saffron party.
"How can they do that? Is this the job of the central forces to ask voters to cast vote for the BJP? A few retired officers are being used by the Modi government to conduct polling here and they are doing whatever they feel like," Banerjee said.
"You should be ashamed of doing this (asking people to vote for Modi)... You are here to do a job. Today you are under Modi, tomorrow you will be under somebody else. Then what will you do?," she said.
In Sunday's sixth phase of polling in eight Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, around 770 companies of central forces were deployed to ensure free and fair elections.
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Nitish Kumar's son Nishant among 32 to take oath as Bihar ministers
Patna (PTI): In a major expansion of the Cabinet of Bihar's first BJP-led government, JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar's son Nishant Kumar and 31 others took oath as ministers on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Altogether 32 leaders, drawn from all constituents of the five-party NDA in the state, were administered the oath of office by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain at a grand ceremony that was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister J P Nadda and BJP president Nitin Nabin.
Prominent inductees included Nishant Kumar, the son of JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, who stepped down as chief minister last month to enter the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP, which is the single largest party in the 243-member assembly with 89 MLAs, has 15 ministers, who took oath on Thursday.
Most of the inductees were those who were part of the Nitish Kumar cabinet formed in November last year after the NDA stormed back to power in the assembly polls.
The JD(U) is represented by a total of 15 ministers, 13 of whom took the oath at the Gandhi Maidan on Thursday. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav had taken oath in April along with Samrat Choudhary and were designated as deputy chief ministers.
Sanjay Kumar Singh and Sanjay Kumar Paswan, both from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) headed by Union minister Chirag Paswan, are back as ministers, and so are Santosh Kumar Suman and Deepak Prakash, sons of Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, respectively.
