The TMC will not be deterred by midnight raids and attacks. Arrested: Mamata

KOLKATA: Midnight raids and arrests cannot scare or stop the Trinamool, CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said, her words coming hours after the ED arrested I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel in New Delhi on Monday night.“If one is arrested, another will take his place. We will keep fighting. Controlling West Bengal is not easy. They threaten to put people in jail. I want to see how powerful they are,” the chief minister said at a rally in Pingla, West Midnapur, coining the slogan “Delhi theke elo Mota Bhai, shonge ED aar CBI” (Big Brother comes from Delhi with ED and CBI).After the announcement of the Bengal polls on March 16, the Ministry of Education summoned TMC candidate Debashis Kumar and ministers Sujit Bose and Rathin Ghosh, while the NIA summoned 43 TMC workers in Nandigram in a 2024 case.Mamata angrily said that the ED and CBI were conducting searches and raids “at midnight” as “orders were being issued to arrest Trinamool workers”. “But it’s not an easy thing,” she said, adding that “if you arrest one person, hundreds of thousands will come out”. The CM said that with only eight days left for the elections, “instructions” have been issued to arrest polling staff so that no one can sit at the polling booths.Following Chandel’s arrest, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote a scathing post on This is not democracy, this is intimidation! “He continued: “…More difficult to ignore is the double standard. Those facing serious corruption charges appear to find protection the moment they switch sides, while others are quickly targeted at politically expedient moments. People are no longer blind to this. “This is bigger than an arrest. This is about whether our institutions remain independent and whether every citizen, regardless of their political beliefs, can participate without fear. Because once fear replaces freedom, democracy becomes just a word,” Abhishek writes.TMC Rajya Sabha MP and party’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien told reporters that the ED’s action was sheer “election sabotage” with less than nine days to go until the first phase of voting. “ED have now rebranded themselves as ‘extremely desperate’ through their actions, but despite this, their political master, the BJP, will ultimately lose in the Bengal assembly polls,” he said.Mamata also addressed rallies in Tamluk, East Midnapur, and Domjul, Howrah, where she urged women to “stand firm against security forces” as they try to prevent people from voting, while insisting she was not asking anyone to indulge in violence.Asked why such a large number of central forces were sent to Bengal, she said: “They brought in police who are close to the BJP and replaced the Indian police… If your only purpose is to maintain peace, you can use the West Bengal police. People will not see the central forces during any natural disaster or riots.”Mamata asked people to file a complaint against any police officer who was subjected to “torture”. “The job of the central forces is to maintain peace. But what if they prevent people from voting? I would ask women to hold brooms in their hands and stand firm against those who are wearing boots and carrying weapons.”