Kolkata: Taking on Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the killing of four people outside a polling booth at the Sitalkuchi Assembly constituency in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the former should resign owing responsibility for the “dastardly, cold-blooded and unprecedented” incident.
Banerjee, who was speaking at a public meeting at Baduria in North 24 Parganas, alleged this was part of a conspiracy hatched by the Union Home Minister and held the central forces responsible for shooting dead the four people standing in a queue to vote.
Asking her party leaders and workers wear black badges, the TMC chief announced that her party would take out rallies across the state on Sunday to protest the killings.
The TMC supremo earlier hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while speaking at Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas, and alleged the saffron party is “conspiring to kill people” as they know “they have lost the people’s mandate”.
Reaching out to the voters, the TMC chief appealed to the people to remain calm post the untoward incident.
“However, I would ask everyone to remain calm and cast their vote peacefully. Avenge the deaths by defeating them… If you count the total number of killings since the elections began, some 17-18 persons were killed. At least 12 people belonged to our party alone,” she said, adding the death toll in this election was far higher than that in the panchayat polls held three years ago.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also trained her guns at the Election Commission.
“We are not in charge of the administration, but the EC is…They have removed the senior IPS Surajit Kar Purakaystha. They have removed my OSD Ashok Chakraborty, who is a lower ranked retired officer from RPF. Yet the EC is bringing in retired officers to oversee polls here,” Banerjee said.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the TMC for perpetrating violence during the polls.
“Mamata Didi and her TMC goons have become jittery because of ground swell of support for BJP,” he said at an election rally in North Bengal’s Siliguri.
The Prime Minister condoled the deaths and requested the Election Commission to take stern action against those responsible for the incident.
“What happened in Cooch Behar is unfortunate and sad. I extend my condolences to the bereaved families,” he said.
The Election Commission has ordered adjournment of the polls at polling station number 126 in the Sitalkuchi Assembly constituency amid reports of violence during the fourth phase of the polls.
The poll body took the decision against the backdrop of four persons being killed as central forces allegedly opened fire after coming under attack from locals.