Didi asks women supporters to gherao CRPF personnel

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, April 7

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged women activists of her party to “gherao” CRPF personnel deployed in the state on election duty. She alleged they were acting as BJP workers and targeting women in particular to prevent them from voting.

Addressing a rally at Cooch Behar, she said some officers of the state police also had “switched sides” after the elections got under way in West Bengal. She cited the instance of Arambagh, where TMC candidate Sujata Mondal was chased by BJP supporters with lathis on Tuesday, and said, “I saw one in Arambagh yesterday… I saw the role of the officer-in-charge there.”

On central forces, Mamata said if the CRPF prevented people from voting, some women must gherao (surround and block) them while other must use the opportunity to vote. “I respect the CRPF. They are real soldiers. But I do not respect the BJP’s CRPF. They are beating women and harassing people,” she alleged, casting aspersions on the paramilitary force that recently lost 22 men in an ambush by Naxals in Chhattisgarh. The CM accused the BJP of taking recourse to terror tactics in the third phase of voting. She said it was difficult to describe the torture endured by the TMC on Tuesday.

“Trinamool candidate Sujata Mandal was beaten up with a bamboo stick. They killed our booth president in Goghat. Our candidate Nazmul was thrashed in Khanakul and the central forces stood guard in villages to prevent women from voting,” Mamata said.

“I ask mothers and sisters — if anyone stops of you from voting, don’t obey. Have the courage to say no,” she added.

‘Treat remark as seditious’

Kolkata: The BJP took strong exception to Mamata’s remarks and urged the Election Commission to bar her from campaigning. In a letter to the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer, the BJP said given the present situation, Mamata’s remark on the CRPF should be treated as “seditious and anti-national”. “The TMC must be derecognised as a political party,” demanded the BJP letter signed by Rajya Sabha MP Ashwini Vishnaw, industrialist-turned-BJP leader Shishir Bajoria and BJP Mahila Morcha general secretary Amrita Banerjee. The BJP also alleged that taking cues from Mamata’s speech, TMC supporters on Wednesday vandalised the vehicle of Dipak Kumar Roy, BJP candidate from the Sitai constituency. pti