PoliticsOpposition
'Vote chori, yes papa': Mamata Banerjee mocks BJP and CEC Gyanesh Kumar at Ramlila Maidan, vows no surrender on SIR
The Trinamool Congress chief turned a nursery rhyme into a rally chant in Delhi and said Bengal's people were being wronged by the voter-list revision.
Key points
- Mamata Banerjee led a 'yes papa' chant on vote theft at the INDIA bloc rally.
- She said Bengal was suffering under the SIR and she would not surrender.
- She accused the BJP of using police and agencies for politics.
Mamata Banerjee brought a nursery rhyme to Ramlila Maidan on Sunday afternoon. Addressing the INDIA bloc rally against the Election Commission, the Trinamool Congress chief led the crowd in a ‘yes papa’ chant aimed at the BJP and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
“Vote-chori yes papa, loktantra chori yes papa,” she said, casting the CEC as the obedient child of the ruling party. Vote theft and the theft of democracy, she said, were being carried out with the BJP’s blessing.
‘Bengal is suffering’
Banerjee kept her sharpest words for the Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. She said the people of West Bengal were being treated unjustly and were facing hardship because of the exercise, and that her party would not back down. She would not surrender under pressure, she said, whatever the personal cost.
She also accused the BJP of lacking an organisation of its own and leaning on the police and central agencies to do its political work. She raised questions about money collected in the name of the Ram Janmabhoomi and about Waqf properties, without giving details.
The fight, she said, would be answered politically and through democratic means.
In a gesture to her Congress allies, Banerjee hailed Sonia Gandhi as “leader” and Rahul Gandhi as the “young leader”. Relations between the Trinamool and the Congress have often been strained, and her presence on the stage was one of the day’s clearer signals of opposition unity.
The rally was called to demand Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over the deletion of names during the revision. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge also addressed the crowd. Police had allowed the event at the ground until 5 pm.