Confident of coming to power in West Bengal, won't impose President's Rule: Shah

Kolkata: Confident of the BJP coming to power in West Bengal next year, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday ruled out the imposition of Article 356 (President’s Rule) in the state, a key demand by many BJP leaders, ahead of next year’s Assembly elections. He also declared the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would be implemented.

Wrapping up his two-day visit to the state, Shah said: “Article 356 is not a public issue. It is a constitutional matter. The Central government takes a decision on it based on the governor’s report. There is no need to enforce Article 356 here as the government will change only in April. So on whom will it be done?”

On the CAA, the home minister cautiously added: “The law has been made. It will definitely be implemented.” Asked if that would be before the Assembly polls, he observed: “It depends on the Covid-19 pandemic. It is our commitment to give citizenship to migrants here.”

Shah also accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee of eyeing to create “dynastic rule” through her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, a Trinamul Congess MP in the Rajya Sabha.

“Her aim is to make her bhatije the next CM. The people of the state have to decide if they want dynasticism or progressivism. A new chapter on bad administration has opened under Banerjee’s leadership here. She has absolutely and successfully politicised the administration, criminalised politics and institutionalised corruption. This has happened in no other state,” he alleged.

Mocking the Trinamul chief, Shah said: “Appeasement has reached such a level that it has given birth to three laws -- one for bhatije, the second for votebank, and the third for Bengalis in general. There is hardly any state in the country where three such laws exist.”

He also asked the Trinamul chief why her government has not sent crime data to the National Crime Records Bureau since 2018 to counter her campaign of a rise in crime in BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh. “What is (there) to hide and why? All want to know the law and order situation of Bengal. I want Banerjee to come out with a white paper on political killings, in which Bengal tops the list of states,” Shah added.

Attacking Banerjee’s opposition to Central welfare projects, he told the state’s farmers that they would get their due amounts in their bank accounts through direct transfer after May next year because “the BJP will be in power here then”.

On elusive Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung’s support to the TMC, Shah quipped: “He is fighting for the Gorkhas. We believed that yesterday. We still hold that.” Complaining of a “political vendetta”, he wondered why he was yet to be arrested despite the multiple cases filed against him.