West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday staged an overnight sit-in in front of Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue on Kolkata’s Red Road to protest Centre’s alleged “discrimination” against the TMC-ruled state.

Accompanied by top leaders, including Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas—and workers of her Trinamool Congress (TMC), Banerjee sat overnight in front the Dalit icon’s bust in the heart of Kolkata from Wednesday noon to protest the BJP-led Centre’s stoppage” of funds to West Bengal for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and public works departments.

Reverting her earlier stance on staying equidistant from the BJP and the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the TMC supremo on Wednesday, urged political parties across the country to form a united front for ousting the saffron party in next year’s national elections.

Mamata Banerjee termed the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a fight between citizens of India versus the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and urged people, irrespective of region or religion, to unite and defeat the right-wing party and save India’s poor.

Dubbing the BJP as ‘Dushasana’ and ‘Duryodhana’ – the two villains from the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’, Banerjee urged all political parties in India to unify and oust the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre.

She claimed that ‘Duryodhana’ BJP must be ousted to “save” India’s common man and the country’s democracy.

A senior officer of the Kolkata Police said that heavy security has been deployed in and around the venue where the West Bengal CM is currently staging her 30-hour sit-in protest which is likely to end by late Thursday evening.

After choosing to remain aloof from the BJP-Congress tussle, Mamata Banerjee participated in the grand old party’s strategy meet to protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament as the Opposition presented a united front.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all geared up to step up its ‘poster war’ with the BJP to another level as the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party readies to launch posters calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a nationwide campaign in eleven languages.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai and senior AAP leader said that the Kejriwal-led party will display anti-PM Modi posters in states across the country on March 30, adding that all state units of the AAP have been directed to paste posters—which have been printed in 11 languages— in their respective states.

Last week, the BJP-AAP ‘poster war’ escalated after the saffron party-sponsored posters calling for the removal of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were seen plastered in parts of the national capital, days after similar posters were posted by “anonymous” persons targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday last, the posters calling for the removal of PM Modi to “save the country” were removed during a large-scale crackdown by the Delhi Police, which also led to the arrest of six accused, including two printing press owners.

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The arrested printing press owners allegedly told the police that they had received an order to print 50,000 “Modi hatao, desh bachao” posters.

Police said the arrests were made for defacing public property and under the law, the posters were required to carry the name of the printing press. They said that only 36 cases out of 138 filed were for the anti-Modi posters.

In retaliation, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa put up anti-Kejriwal posters with the slogan ‘Arvind Kejriwal ko hatao, Dilli Bachao (Remove Arvind Kejriwal, Save Delhi’ with a header calling the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Corrupt, Dishonest and Dictator, across the national capital on March 23—two days after the Delhi Police’s crackdown on anti-Modi posters which read ‘Modi hatao, desh bachao (remove Modi, save the country).’

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CBI wanted me to help frame PM Modi in fake encounter case during UPA rule, claims Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday claimed that the CBI wanted him to help “frame” Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a purported fake encounter case in Gujarat during the Congress-led UPA regime.

Responding to opposition allegations of the PM Modi-led BJP government’s “misuse” of central probe agencies to target political opponents, Amit Shah, while speaking at the ‘News 18 Rising India’ programme claimed that during the UPA rule, the CBI was “putting pressure” on him to “frame” Narendra Modi—the chief minister of Gujarat at the time—in an alleged fake encounter case in which PM Modi was being questioned by the probe agency.

Shah said despite the CBI targeting the Chief Minister of a state, the BJP never created a commotion over this and let due process prevail.

Speaking on Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case for the ‘Modi surname’ remark, Shah said the former Wayanad MP wasn’t the first politician to have been convicted by a court and losing his seat in the Parliament.

The home minister said that Rahul Gandhi has blamed PM Modi for a fate of his own making when he should be moving to a higher court to appeal the conviction and seek a legal course, adding that the Congress was spreading a half-truth that the conviction can’t be stayed which isn’t true and is ultimately up to the judicial system.

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The veteran BJP leader questioned why the Gandhi scion hasn’t filed an appeal in court to stay his court, asking if it was arrogance and if Gandhi wanted a favour and not go before a court for appeal… “You want to continue to be MP and will also not go before the Court. Where does such arrogance come from?”

Amit Shah pointed out that at least 17 prominent politicians, including bigwigs like Lalu Prasad Yadav and J Jayalalitha, lost their Parliament membership because of a 2013 Supreme Court order during the UPA government, which said an elected representative would lose his seat immediately after conviction… “however, no one protested wearing black clothes because it is the law of the land.”

Shah dispelled Opposition claims of “revenge politics”, claiming that Rahul Gandhi, not only abused Narendra Modi in his speech but also the entire Modi community and OBC society and hence law of the land dictates that he be punished for that, adding that the judgement in this regard was made during the Congress rule itself.

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