Kolkata, Nov 2 — BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Monday led the party's 'Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy' march in Kolkata and simultaneously targeted former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
The procession, which started from College Street with Nitin Nabin, state Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, concluded in the Esplanade area in central Kolkata.
While addressing the public at the end of the march, Nitin Nabin said, "West Bengal is already completely free from Mamata. Unable to cope with the shock of defeat in his own state, the former Chief Minister is now crying in Delhi. Now Delhi too needs to be freed from Rahul quickly."
The BJP launched a counter-offensive against the Opposition's protests over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
On Sunday, the INDIA Bloc held a 'Save the Vote, Save the Country' programme at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Slamming the Opposition for organising the protest, Nitin Nabin said, "People of the INDIA Bloc, who were defeated in their respective states, had gathered in Delhi to cry. The manner in which TMC was wiped out in Bengal, Congress and AAP were wiped out in Delhi. In Bihar too, RJD was completely wiped out. Now, it is Uttar Pradesh's turn; we had defeated Akhilesh Yadav earlier too, and we will defeat him in 2027 too. Such people with anarchist mindsets are led by Rahul Gandhi."
Attacking the Congress further, the BJP national president said the grand old party never learns from its mistakes.
"Instead of learning from his mistakes, Rahul Gandhi is acting as the tool kit of foreign forces. When I say this word, I say this because when there was unrest in Bangladesh, he was sympathetic towards the elements who were causing the unrest. When elements try to cause unrest in Nepal, he expresses sympathy to them. Rahul Gandhi and Congress are sympathetic towards all such elements."
The BJP Rajya Sabha leader further said, ''Even today, I tell Rahul Gandhi Ji: learn from your shortcomings, or else in the coming days, there will be no one left in the country even to take Congress's name; this is the situation that will arise for you. You talk about democracy? I ask the workers of Congress: is there any democracy left in your own party? You invoke the Constitution, which Constitution? The Constitution that runs according to the Nehru-Gandhi family?"
Nabin also hailed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the country forward on several fronts.
"When it comes to national security, he stands as a Chowkidar (watchman); during a crisis like COVID-19, he stands as the Pradhan Sevak (Chief Servant) of the nation; this is Narendra Modi's leadership. Today, you are trying to spread anarchy across the country and harm constitutional institutions. When the public rejected you, had you fought for the people's causes, they wouldn't have turned their backs on you."
The BJP leader added, "And we can say that today, if more than 25 crore poor families have risen above the poverty line, it is a victory of trust in Narendra Modi's development. It is a victory of Narendra Modi's welfare schemes. Now they ask how this transformed into results. Instead of removing poverty, you removed the poor. But Narendra Modi Ji removed poverty and brought people out of the poverty line. That is why we won the election in 2019, and that is why we won in 2024, and we will win again in 2029."
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari compared the Trinamool Congress and the Opposition by presenting his own political interpretation of the SIR process.
He said, "Whatever SIR means to the opposition, for us the real meaning of SIR is - remove the infiltrators, save India."
Strongly attacking the opposition camp, the Chief Minister further said, "Let me remind those who have come together today to save themselves from corruption and jail terms, to maintain the dynasty and to bring back the politics of appeasement - in the 2026 elections, the people of West Bengal elected the Bharatiya Janata Party by giving 2 crore 92 lakh votes. That is why they want to create anarchy in Bengal today.''