Owaisi hits back at Mamata for indirectly calling him 'minority extremist'

News Network

November 19, 2019

Kolkata, Nov 19: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned against "minority extremism" in an obvious attack on the AIMIM, party chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit back on Tuesday, saying Muslims in the TMC chief's state are ranked "worst" on development indicators.

Marking a shift in her rhetoric on religious extremism, Banerjee had, at an event in Cooch Behar on Monday, asked people to refrain from listening to "minority extremists" who have their base in Hyderabad, apparently targeting Owaisi, a Lok Sabha MP from that city.

Without naming the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul- Muslimeen (AIMIM), Banerjee said, "There are some extremists among the minorities. They have their base in Hyderabad. Don't listen to them. Don't trust these forces".

The TMC boss's comments did not go down well with Owaisi, who took to Twitter to criticize her.

"It's not religious extremism to say that Bengal's Muslims have one of the worst human development indicators of any minority," he wrote.

Later, while talking to a news channel, Owaisi said the message by the TMC supremo only goes on to establish the fact that AIMIM has become a "formidable force" in the state.

The BJP had clinched the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, which has a sizeable minority population, from the TMC earlier this year.

The BJP, which has emerged as the main challenger to the TMC in West Bengal after the Lok Sabha polls, has often alleged that Banerjee and her party's "appeasement policy" had led to the "rise of minority extremism" in the state.

Owaisi has been trying hard to expand his party's footprint in the east and recently pocketed the Kishanganj seat in Bihar in a bypoll to make its maiden entry into the state assembly.

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You are exposed long before when you send your brother to have a meeting with Daku amit shah in wee hours.. DIDI is wright

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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