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Mamata Banerjee demands Amit Shah’s resignation over ‘TMC govt. will collapse in 2025’ remark

Accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of “conspiring” to bring down her government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on April 17 demanded resignation of the Home Minister.

Banerjee raised the statement made by Shah during a public meeting on April 14, where he had urged people to give “35 seats to her party in 2024” Lok Sabha polls and added that “Mamata ji’s government will come down in 2025”.

“The Home Minister is saying that he will bring down an elected government. After making such a statement, he (Shah) cannot remain the Home Minister. He should resign as the Home Minister,” the Chief Minister said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference, at Nabanna, in Howrah on April 17, 2023.

Banerjee also ridiculed the claims of the Home Minister and said that BJP will not win five seats in West Bengal in 2024. She also called for the unity of Opposition and expressed hope that BJP will not form government in 2024. “If we unite, BJP will lose the 2024 elections,” Banerjee said.

On the questioning of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Delhi excise policy case, she said that Centre is trying to make an example that it will not spare the Chief Minister.

Banerjee also raised the recent interviews of former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik and sought an inquiry into the Pulwama incident.

The Chief Minister sought a judicial probe. “Only the judiciary can save the country. If sitting Judges investigate the incident then truth will come out,” she said.

She also raised the killing of Atiq Ahmed and his brother in Uttar Pradesh and asked how many Central teams have visited Uttar Pradesh after the incident. Banerjee said that so far 151 Central teams have visited West Bengal, including in the post poll violence. “Whatever I saw in Uttar Pradesh I did not like it,” she said, adding that “double-engine BJP has a double standard”.

Responding to questions by journalists on the arrest of her MLAs, the Trinamool Congress chairperson said there is a “game plan” by the BJP to arrest a maximum number of MLAs so that the strength of the Trinamool comes down in the Assembly.

“Since we have a huge number of MLAs and few MLAs from the BJP have also joined us that is why they are unable to do anything,” she said. Hours ago on April 17, Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha was arrested by the CBI in a recruitment scam. He is the third MLA of Trinamool to be arrested in the recruitment scam.

The Chief Minister also referred to a recent letter by Government of India which relates to updating and removing illegal Aadhar cards in certain areas of the State. Banerjee said the letter refers to areas in North and South 24 Parganas where the exercise will be carried out. “We all know who resides in these areas,” the Chief Minister said, giving hints that these areas are inhabited by ‘minorities’. Banerjee said that under the garb of updating and removing Aadhar cards the Centre is trying to implement The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. “We will not allow NRC or CAA to be implemented in Bengal,” she said.
In Brief:

Amidst severe criticism from civil rights activists and some allies of the ruling DMK, the Tamil Nadu police on Monday shed several weeks of reluctance and registered a case against suspended Assistant Superintendent of Police Balveer Singh on charges of torturing suspects in custody in the Ambasamudram Sub Division last month. Singh has been accused of damaging and uprooting the teeth of some suspects during interrogation in a few police stations and also squeezing the testicles of a couple of men.