Home Minister Amit Shah is completely responsible for today’s incident and he himself is the conspirator. I don’t blame central forces because they work under Home Minister’s order: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Siliguri. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday blamed Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the violence in Sitalkuchi in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district where voting had to be called off after clashes left four people dead. “Home Minister Amit Shah is completely responsible for today’s incident and he himself is the conspirator. I don’t blame central forces because they work under Home Minister’s order. We will demand his resignation,” she said, calling the deaths “murder by central forces”.
Ms Banerjee will visit the area on Sunday while the Trinamool Congress plans to organise black-badge protests across the state to mark the incident. The four men were shot dead this morning in a clash with security forces outside a polling booth. The clashes, which took place as 44 seats vote today in the fourth phase of state elections, have triggered a blame-game between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. The Election Commission has stopped polling at the booth in Sitalkuchi, about 680 km from state capital Kolkata, where violence was reported and a detailed report has been sought by 5 pm.
