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Kolkata, Oct 18 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday responded to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegations that she is trying to settle outsiders in her native assembly constituency Bhabanipur in Kolkata, saying it is nothing more than the fear of facing defeat in the constituency during the upcoming assembly elections next year.
“A particular political party tries to bring in outsiders and enroll them as voters before any election. Some of them stay in guest houses and hotels. Rich people buy flats. But none of them are residents of that locality. How can the same person have his name in the voter list at two different places?” The Chief Minister said after inaugurating a community Kali Puja pandal in Kolkata on Friday.
BJP’s IT cell chief and party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, has issued an ex-post ridiculing Chief Minister Banerjee for her comments that people are buying flats in Bhabanipur just to become voters from her constituency.
“It seems that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has lost it completely. Her claim that people are buying flats in Bhabanipur just to get votes and defeat her is strange. Clearly, the Nandigram debacle still haunts her. More importantly, it is an admission that people in Kolkata are so fed up with her that they will go to any extent to see her disappear. The writing is on the wall – it doesn’t look good for her.” Said.
Recently, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly and senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari had repeatedly claimed that Chief Minister Banerjee would lose from Bhawanipur in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
“I defeated her (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) from Nandigram during the 2021 state assembly elections. Next year, she will lose from Bhawanipur. She will also lose in her ward,” the LOP official claimed.
Chief Minister Banerjee contested the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections from Nandigram constituency in East Midnapore district and lost to LOP Adhikari.
Later, Mamata Banerjee contested the by-election from Bhabanipur and was elected Chief Minister for the third consecutive time.
Incidentally, Bhabanipur is one of the seven assembly constituencies under the Kolkata (South) Lok Sabha constituency.
During 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.
Chief Minister Banerjee traveled from ward number 73 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, where she herself is a voter.
–IANS
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