'Nasty Naughty Home Minister Has Come To Collect Our Party's Poll Strategy': Mamata Banerjee On I-PAC Raids

Kolkata: While a special unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at multiple locations in Kolkata, including the political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in Salt Lake, including the residence of its chief, Pratik Jain, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee rushed to Jain’s residence brushing aside reporters’ microphones and refusing to take questions. 

On her way out, with hard disks, phones and files in her hand, the fuming TMC chief briefly spoke to the reporters, accusing the BJP-led government at the Centre, of using the garb of the anti-money laundering agency, to collect her party's data ahead of the crucial assembly elections. 

“Is it the duty of the ED, Amit Shah to collect all of our party's hard disk, the candidate list, the party strategy, the party plan?” Banerjee questioned as he tore into the BJP for allegedly weaponizing the ED to seize all the crucial political strategic gameplay of the TMC, the saffron party's main political advisory in West Bengal.

Trading barbs at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, by calling him ‘naughty’ and ‘nasty’ for allegedly failing at his duties to protect the country, Banerjee questioned, “Is it the duty of ED or Amit Shah, the nasty Home Minister, the naughty Home Minister, who cannot protect the country and he is taking away all my party documents?”

The TMC chief, whose party is the only one which is in a position to give the BJP an equal competition in West Bengal, Banerjee said that the BJP has no “guts” to put up a fair fight. 

“What will be the result if I raid the BJP party office? They don't have any guts,” the Chief Minister dared.

In an attack at the BJP, for carrying out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal, which the TMC claims is aimed at deleting a sizeable chunk of voters from the electoral roll, the Chief Minister said, “On one side, in the SIR case, they are deleting the names of all the Bengal people, more than 2 crore people, 1.5 crore people are being called, 54 lakh are being deleted without asking their details. They are using WhatsApp only.”

Banerjee acknowledged that Pratik Jain, the IPAC head, is the in-charge of her party's electoral strategy and hence collecting all the date from his residence and office is urgent and crucial, before it falls in the hands of the BJP, through the investigating agencies. 

“Because of the elections, they are collecting all the information about my party. See I have brought everything. Because Pratik Jain is the in-charge of my party. So my hard disk, phone, they are collecting all. They have already attacked my IT officers at Sector 5. I am going there also,” she said.

BJP Loots, And Peddle Lies

Coming out of I-PAC's office, Banerjee continued her attack against the BJP saying that the saffron party loots Bengal's papers, her party's strategy and the state's language and even jokingly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to control his Home Minister.

"They loot our papers, karte loot, bolte jhoot (you loot and tell lies), you loot our papers, our strategy, and even our voters, and then they lie. They loot West Bengal, our language. What will be your future? You will be reduced to zero seats and lose whatever seats you have. I am sorry, but Mr Prime Minister, you must control your Home Minister,” she said.

The TMC supremo said that despite hundreds of BJP-funded social media handles functioning in the state spreading Artificial Intelligene-generated fake information, the ruling party has not acted against them. However, Banerjee warned that if it continues the fight will intensify, underlining that every step will be taken democratically. 

“Hundreds of BJP agencies are working here, hundreds of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, funded by the BJP are being operated here and AI is used to spread false information. All of you know that journalists are stripped naked in Uttar Pradesh. We have not disturbed anyone so far, but if this continues, the fight will move to the field, and the fight for democracy will be fought democratically,” she said, speaking to reporters.

Labelling the BJP as “killers of democracy”, the TMC supremo also attacked the Centre of attacking its cultural icons like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and renowned poet Joy Goswami. 

“The BJP is using money power and muscle power. They are the 'killers' of democracy. In the name of SIR, they have deleted more than 1.5 crore names and even issued a notice to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and renowned poet Joy Goswami. You will be surprised to know that the maximum number of deletions are of women and young voters. Why? They are not allowing them to enlist their name. Even Election Commission is not giving us,” she said.

“We are gentle, we are sober, we are cultural people, Bengal is the cultural capital of India. But if you disturb us, loot us, cheat us, and try to snatch away our rights, we will never be able to digest it,” the Chief Minister further warned.

In response to a question from reporters on the proceeds of the alleged coal scam, Banerjee claimed that the money was utilised by Amit Shah, Suvendu Adhikari, Jagannath Sarkar and asked the ED to raid these political heavyweights, if they want to.

In response to the ED raids on I-PAC offices, the TMC stated on X, “Unable to fight democratically, the BJP is now using the ED as a weapon, trying to forcibly seize party documents, internal strategies, candidate-related details, and crucial papers. ” The Chief Minister has announced protests at every block across the state on Thursday evening against the ED's raids against I-PAC.

The BJP which is rapidly making inroads into West Bengal and has given a clarion call to its cadre as well as state leadership to ensure that it wins Bengal this year, riding at the back of its impressive victory record in Bihar and Delhi, is the Trinamool's prime adversary in the upcoming assembly elections. 

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