Incoming Governor is BJP’s parrot, says Mamata

Continuing her sit-in protest at Esplanade in Kolkata over the deletion of names in the final electoral roll after the special intensive revision exercise carried out by the Election Commission (EC), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday paraded on stage people whose names have been removed.

“If there is democracy, why are you removing names of genuine voters? If you try to remove genuine voters from the electoral rolls, we will overthrow your government in Delhi,” she said, targeting the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and EC. She urged the judiciary to include the name of voters whose names have been removed from rolls.

Referring to Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, who will assume the responsibility of Governor of West Bengal, she described him as BJP’s parrot. “The person who is coming to Bengal now, I heard he had to face many comments from the Supreme Court. He is just a parrot of the BJP. But remember, Bengal is a different place. You may have done whatever you wanted in Tamil Nadu, but here you are not letting anyone not finish their term,” she said.

Ms. Banerjee also touched on the issue of the sudden resignation of West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose. “Fifteen days before elections, you made Ananda Bose suffer the fate of [former Vice-President Jagdeep] Dhankhar,” she said, claiming that Mr. Bose was “threatened”.

Benefit transfer

The Chief Minister also made an announcement that the entitlement of Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme, which was supposed to be credited in the account of beneficiaries from April, will be credited on Saturday. Under the scheme announced on February 5, unemployed jobseekers aged 21-40 who have passed Class X will receive ₹1,500 per month to help them move towards a self-reliant future. More than 80 lakh youth have applied for the entitlement.