‘How can Bengal election be fair when so many genuine voters are left out?’, says Shashi Panja

On March 14, this house was attacked. Have you ever thought that you would personally be exposed to political violence?

We knew that the BJP was a violent party and that its politics was very superficial. But this was a new low. This was pure hooliganism and they are proud of what they did. This is shocking and humiliating because I was in my own home, in my political office, and I was putting up political banners. I was clearly very strong. What surprises me the most is cowardice. There is a lady before you; You can’t come running in with a brick and hit him in the stomach. They did it on a day when the Prime Minister was in the city.

You are a senior leader in the party and also a three-time MLA and minister. What do you think about the 2026 elections and the upcoming elections? So how do you think this is different from the 2021 elections?

If the BJP says ‘hum log aarahe hain (We will come to power)’, if you are so sure that you will win this election, then why did you have to do SIR (Special Intensive Revision)? You do a routine, intensive revision like you did in Assam. Why did you have to dig so deep to disenfranchise so many people? This means that what you say and what you believe are very different. If you are so sure that you will win, you do not have to take these measures that take away the rights of the people. They put me; a three-time elected MLA, under rule [after SIR citing logical discrepancies and cleared eventually] With what intention? I am a registered voter. Otherwise, why would I be elected or even run for office? If they could judge me logically, what had they done to others?

We can yell and scream or go to court, but it takes time. Didi [Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] He applied to the court due to SIR. People are being harassed. But you still try to cover up the incident with a bigger narrative: ‘‘Muslims are traitors, ghuspetiya hain’ (They are Muslims and spies). You see, they [BJP-led Centre] I have directed a different kind of narrative before. This was a distinction between two languages; The center of Hindi and the country of Bengali. However, this time the situation is different because we are entering an election where voter power is decreasing. This is unconstitutional. Many do not know if they can vote or what their future is. Those who are judged and erased do not even realize that they have been erased.

If we take your constituency, Shyampukur in North Kolkata, around 44,000 voters have been deleted, do you think this affects the level playing field?

We all want free and fair elections. So where is the justice when you get rid of so many legal voters? As for free elections, this is very unfortunate. They say we are appeasing Muslims. But during Ram Navami, we saw people armed with swords and DJ remixes Ram Ka Bhakti Geeti. So this is basically extreme exhibitionism. The voters here will not be like that.

Even if they delete the voters [BJP] may lose Ayodhya [in the 2024 Lok Sabha election]They can lose anywhere.

Trinamool Congress has devised many women-centric schemes to appeal to women voters. Can you elaborate on this?

Lakshmi Bhandar is a scheme with financial incentives; It is quite popular and has reached more than 2.42 crore women. This is his money. This is his bank account. This is a single bank account, not a joint account with someone. Gains financial literacy and ‘‘samman’ (Respect). With this money, critical gaps can be closed. Something that has been copied in many other states, including those ruled by the BJP.

One of the campaigns highlighted by the BJP is crimes against women and the unsafety of women in West Bengal. Now BJP has brought the mother of RG Kar victim to the field [the doctor who was raped and murdered in the State-run hospital in 2024]What kind of political message is this?

I was on the ground because RG Kar (Hospital and Medical College) is not far from where I stay and also from my constituency. I am a graduate of RG Kar. I have seen those days and nights of spontaneous outpourings of pain and sympathy for the victim. We have encountered all of these.

We also encountered criticism towards us. We condemned the incident. Who would want something like this to happen? Nobody wants it. We have nothing to say when the victim’s mother decides to step into electoral politics by running as a BJP candidate. It’s his choice. Even when the incident occurred, we did not shirk our responsibilities, especially the CM. Kolkata Police arrested the accused. CBI failed to uncover more. This was a CBI investigation monitored by the Supreme Court and we have nothing to say.

Aparajita Bill within a month of the incident [that prescribes death penalty for rape] It was introduced and approved by the Vidhan Sabha, but till date it has not been converted into law as it awaits the President’s assent. Why?

The BJP harbors criminals who commit crimes against women. They put wreaths on Bilkis Bano’s rapists [2002 Gujarat riots victim]; Abhaya’s mother’s tragedy [RG Kar victim] We expect justice from this party. It’s not about my rape or your rape. Rape is a rape. There are high numbers in states ruled by the BJP. We need to act together.

The BJP is also fighting elections over lack of industry and capital flight. There is dissatisfaction among people in the field regarding this issue. What are your views on this subject?

What investments did Mr. Prime Minister bring to his various foreign trips? Nothing came. When Didi came to power in 2011, it was a very difficult time. By then, Bengal had already been marked as the place of militant unions, strikes and major power outages after the Left period. We are trying to overcome this period and change this impression. We held many business summits here. It’s not like industries don’t exist here, they do. They create employment. We will work on this further.

What will be the first thing your government will want to do if you come to power for a fourth term in 2026?

A lot of technology and new innovations are coming. Mamata Banerjee has a projection for this and a land bank has been identified for it. But we are a predominantly agriculture-based economy and we are also an industry that provides employment. We are talking about unemployment all over the country, and we are also struggling with the problem. If the central government paid us the money we owed, maybe we could expand our programs here. This is an economic “suffocation”.

We stopped giving industrial incentives because people were buying from us and not much was being gained from it. People will come because this is the gateway to East and Southeast Asia; We are in a very good position geographically. We will try to do better, we are not saying we are perfect.