KOLKATA: Midnight raids and arrests won’t be able to scare or halt Trinamool, CM Mamata Banerjee thundered on Tuesday, her words coming barely a few hours after ED arrested I-PAC co-founder Vinesh Chandel in New Delhi late on Monday.“If one is arrested, another will take his place. We will continue to fight. It is not so easy to control West Bengal. They are threatening to put people behind bars. I want to see how powerful they are,” the CM said at a rally in West Midnapore’s Pingla, coining the slogan “Delhi theke elo Mota Bhai, shonge ED aar CBI” (Big brother has come from Delhi along with ED and CBI).After polls were announced in Bengal on March 16, ED summoned TMC candidates Debashis Kumar and ministers Sujit Bose and Rathin Ghosh, while NIA summoned 43 TMC workers in Nandigram in a 2024 case.ED and CBI were conducting searches and raids “at midnight”, as “orders are being given to arrest Trinamool workers”, Mamata fumed. “But this will not be an easy task,” she said, adding “if you arrest one, lakhs will come out”. With elections only eight days away, “instructions” have been given to arrest booth agents so that no one can sit at polling stations, the CM alleged.In a hard-hitting post after Chandel’s arrest, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X on Monday night: “The arrest of Vinesh Chandel, co-founder of I-PAC, barely 10 days before the Bengal elections is not just alarming. It shakes the very idea of a level-playing field. At a time when WB should be moving toward free and fair elections, this kind of action sends a chilling message: if you work with the opposition, you could be next. That’s not democracy, that’s intimidation!”He continued: “…even harder to ignore is the double standard. Those facing serious corruption allegations seem to find protection the moment they switch sides, while others are swiftly targeted at politically convenient moments. People are not blind to this anymore.” “This is bigger than one arrest. It is about whether our institutions remain independent and whether every citizen, no matter their political belief, can participate without fear. Because once fear replaces freedom, democracy becomes just a word,” Abhishek wrote.Speaking to reporters, TMC Rajya Sabha MP and party’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien said the ED action was nothing short of “electoral sabotage”, with less than 9 days to go before the first phase of polls. “ED has now renamed themselves as ‘Extremely Desperate’ by their actions, but despite all these, their political masters, BJP, will end up losing in the Bengal assembly polls,” he said.Mamata, who also addressed rallies at Tamluk in East Midnapore and Domjur in Howrah, urged women to “stand firm” against security forces if attempts are made to prevent people from voting, while asserting that she was not asking anyone to indulge in violence.Questioning why such a large number of central forces were brought to Bengal, she said: “They have brought in officers who are close to BJP and replaced the ICs… If your sole aim was to keep peace, you could have used West Bengal Police. People don’t see central forces during any natural calamity or riots.”Mamata asked people to lodge complaints against any police officer if they were “tortured”. “The job of the central forces is to maintain peace. But what if they prevent people from voting? I will request women to keep brooms in their hands and stand firm against those wearing boots and carrying arms.”
