Mamata Banerjee creating false narrative on Bengali harassment in BJP-ruled states: Mithun Chakraborty

Kolkata: Veteran actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty, on Thursday, accused West Bengal Chief Minister of creating a false narrative on the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.

“Bengali-speaking people have not faced any kind of unnecessary harassment anywhere in the country. Actually, Trinamool Congress is running short of issues before the elections. So the Chief Minister is trying to create a false narrative on the issue and trying to instigate common people, which she has always done,” Chakraborty said after arriving in Kolkata on Thursday afternoon to attend the party’s several programmes.

He also refuted the allegations of the Trinamool Congress that the Election Commission of India, at the behest of the BJP and the Union government, is trying to selectively strike out the names of Bengal voters from the voters’ list.

“Names of genuine Bengali voters are not being deleted from the voters’ list anywhere in India. Only those names are being deleted who infiltrated illegally and subsequently managed to get their names enrolled in the voters’ list,” the BJP leader said.

He also said that, ironically, the highest number of illegal infiltrators who have managed to get their names enrolled in the voters’ list happens to be in West Bengal. “Trinamool Congress leadership is aware that with the names of these infiltrators deleted from the voters’ list, they would not be able to win even 70 out of 294 seats in West Bengal in the 2026 state Assembly polls. That is why they have panicked and are opposing the special intensive revision by ECI,” Chakraborty said.

He also gave a call to the common BJP workers in the state to help the Commission in identifying those illegal infiltrators who managed to get their names enlisted in the voters’ list.

Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress has been opposing this special intensive revision by ECI, with the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, even claiming that her party would not allow this exercise in West Bengal. She also claimed that this exercise was an indirect attempt to introduce the NRC in West Bengal.

–IANS