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Kolkata, October 17 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday indirectly accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to settle outsiders in Bhabanipur, her native assembly constituency in Kolkata.
The issue of outsiders allegedly becoming voters in Bhawanipur was raised by the Chief Minister earlier this week when she was visiting North Bengal to review the situation there amid the devastation in the hill, Terai and Dooars regions following recent floods and landslides.
After inaugurating a community Kali Puja pandal in Kolkata on Friday afternoon, Chief Minister Banerjee also said what she meant by her “outsiders in Bhabanipur” statement earlier this week.
He said, “As outsiders, I did not mean the people living there. I meant a particular political party, which tries to bring outsiders before any election and tries to enroll them as voters before any election.”
Although he did not name any particular political party, his clear reference was towards the BJP, which is often called a party of outsiders in West Bengal by the Trinamool Congress leadership.
He also said that before any election many outsiders come to the city.
“Some of them stay in guest houses and hotels. Rich people buy flats. But none of them are residents of that area. How can the same person have his name in the voter list at two places?” He added.
He also said that in many cases, slums are demolished to construct high-rise buildings, where outsiders are buying flats.
Incidentally, Bhabanipur is one of the seven assembly constituencies under the Kolkata (South) Lok Sabha constituency.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, although Trinamool Congress candidate Mala Roy was elected for the second time from Kolkata (South), she lagged in most of the municipal wards in both Bhabanipur and its adjacent Rashbehari constituency.
He even traveled from Ward No. 73 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, where the Chief Minister himself is a voter.
Recently, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly and senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had repeatedly claimed that Mamata Banerjee will lose from Bhawanipur in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
“I defeated her from Nandigram in 2021. Next year she will lose from Bhawanipur. She will also lose in her ward,” the LOP official claimed.
–IANS
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