Lashing back at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday that it was her appeal to the people to target security forces that provoked the clash in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar on Saturday.
This statement comes just hours after Banerjee had called the incident a ‘genocide’ and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation.
"Mamata Banerjee's advice to gherao central forces instigated people to attack the CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) in Sitalkuchi. Even now, attempts are being made to politicise the killings," Shah said during a rally in Santipur district.
Four men were shot dead on Saturday morning in a clash with security forces outside a polling booth, during the fourth phase of state elections, triggering a blame game between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress.
"My humble request to the people of Bengal is to celebrate the festival of democracy peacefully in the rest of the voting phases. Vote, and make your favourite candidate win. Work to create a new history of peaceful elections in Bengal," he said.
“I promise the people of Bengal that after 2 May, when the BJP government will be formed in Bengal under the leadership of Modi ji, this electoral violence, political violence will leave Bengal forever.”Home Minister Amit Shah
Earlier in the day, Banerjee held Home Minister Amit Shah responsible for the incident and called him ‘the conspirator.’
“The home minister and prime minister are incompetent. They're coming here daily to capture Bengal. You are welcome, nobody has stopped you but make people happy rather than threatening them. You get people killed by central forces and later issue them a clean chit,” she said.
“It is a genocide. They sprayed bullets. They could have shot on the leg or the lower body but every bullet hit them in the neck or chest area,”she added.
Condemning the Election Commission (EC) for restricting entry to the district, she said on Sunday said the EC should rename the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) enforced at the time of elections as ‘Modi Code of Conduct’.
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