KOLKATA/KHANDAGHOSH: Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee warned that an “operation” would begin on Sunday night to arrest Trinamool workers with less than two weeks to go until the assembly polls, and urged them to be careful under the current European Commission-led government. Mamata has vowed to resist the BJP’s attempt to “break the delimitation of Bengal” planned to begin after the census this year. She said the BJP was trying to “harass and intimidate” Bengal voters, including her, because it “knew it would lose the election”. “Many people will be detained and arrested before voting (as part of the election strategy). These operations will begin tonight (Sunday). Do not be intimidated… Remember, during this election, everything is under the jurisdiction of the Electoral Commission – nothing is in our hands. Stay vigilant for another 15-21 days; then we will see, we will fight, we will win again… They (BJP) know they will lose the election. That’s why they changed everything here,” the chief minister told a rally in Kandagosh in East Burdwan, alluding to a wave of transfers in the state administration. Mamata expressed opposition to the delimitation bill that the Center is likely to introduce in the Lok Sabha this month, calling it a design to “divide Bengal into three parts”. “Then the NRC will be implemented. People will be sent to detention camps. In Assam, out of the 1.9 million people sent to detention camps, 1.3 million are Hindus and 600,000 are Muslims. We will never allow detention camps in Bengal,” the chief minister said. Mamata described SIR as “the biggest scam”. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to his third term in 2024 by voters. “Is everyone an infiltrator?” she asked, referring to those who voted in the last Lok Sabha elections but were excluded after the SIR.
