Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 8 : West Bengal LoP and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her government of shielding Bangladeshi infiltrators for vote bank politics.
He said that around 540 km of the border remains unfenced due to the state's refusal to provide land to the BSF for permanent fencing.
Speaking to the reporters in Kolkata, Suvendu Adhikari said, "The ground reality is that the infiltrators, especially the Bangladeshi Muslims, are coming through the West Bengal border because for a 540 km area, there is no fencing. The Mamata Banerjee government is not providing adequate land to the BSF for permanent fencing..."
Adhikari said that lakhs of infiltrators are entering the state and said they should be "detected, deleted, and deported."
"Lakhs of Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators who are not Indian are coming. Mamata Banerjee and her government are protecting them... Due to the vote bank politics, Mamata Banerjee and her police are protecting them. We want to detect, delete, and deport them," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dismissed any claims that she had accepted the enumeration form for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), stating that she would refrain from doing so unless every person in Bengal had filled out the form.
Banerjee is opposed to the ongoing SIR in West Bengal and 11 other states, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using the exercise to insert fake votes in the electoral roll.
"Until every person in Bengal is filling the form, I myself have not filled any form and will not. Various media and newspapers have published that 'I came out of the residence and received an enumeration form from BLO with my own hands! ' This news is totally false, confusing and purposeful propaganda," Banerjee said in a post on Facebook.
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar earlier stated that the poll body will conduct the second phase of the SIR in the following states: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.