Kolkata, Jul 16 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rekindled the TMC's Bengali identity pitch and lashed out at the BJP-led Centre on Wednesday for what, she called, was its policy of harassing and mistreating Bengali-speaking people across the country.

Banerjee warned the saffron party of dire political consequences if it did not put an immediate stop to such actions and alleged that the Centre's ruling dispensation was "influencing the Election Commission of India" to achieve its political ambitions across states.

She was speaking at a public meeting after holding a protest march in rain-drenched Kolkata against the alleged torture of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states.

"I have seen a notification that the Centre has issued in February this year, which says that people can be kept in jails for a month without trial under the slightest suspicion," she claimed.

The TMC supremo described the situation as "more than an emergency" and asked the BJP what it has been doing after criticising Indira Gandhi and observing an anti-Emergency day.

"I will challenge those notices which were surreptitiously sent to BJP-ruled states to harass Bengali-speaking people," Banerjee alleged at the rally, which terminated at the Dorina Crossing in central Kolkata after marching along a nearly three-kilometre route.

Stating she was ashamed and disheartened at the Centre and the BJP's attitude towards Bengalis, Banerjee tore into the saffron camp's alleged persecution of migrant workers in various BJP-ruled states for speaking their mother tongue and branding them as Rohingya Muslims or Bangladeshi infiltrators.

"I have now decided to speak more in Bangla from now on. Hold me in detention camps if you can before you throw other Bengalis in jail," she said, asking the BJP to remain prepared for a fresh round of 'Khela Hobey' during the assembly elections in 2026.

This 'game-is-on' slogan was coined by the party ahead of the 2021 state polls.

Asserting that there are nearly 22 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal working in other parts of the country, who have valid identity documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards, Banerjee said she would not tolerate any disrespect meted out to them on flimsy grounds.

"What right does the BJP have in harassing Bengalis like this, even arresting them and forcefully pushing them back to Bangladesh? Is West Bengal not part of India?" she asked.

The chief minister claimed that the state has already compiled a list of about 1000 migrant workers from the state, who were detained or thrown in lock-ups and detention camps in various states for "speaking in their mother tongue".

"We are in the process of identifying the exact number of people they have forcibly pushed back to Bangladesh," she said.

Justifying her call to hold a protest rally in the city barely four days ahead of her party's July 21 Martyr's Day central gathering at around the same site, Banerjee said, "Some people from my party asked me why and I told them that when a danger becomes clear and present, it is important to respond with sharpness and immediacy. We must strike the iron when it is hot.

She criticised the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the assembly polls there.

"Whenever there's an election, the BJP starts removing names from electoral rolls. I request the Election Commission not to broker BJP's agenda. I heard that they have deleted 30.5 lakh voters in Bihar. That's how the BJP won the Maharashtra and Delhi elections. They are applying the same plans for Bihar and Bengal," she said.

"But here, we will fight them inch by inch and will let them know we will not give in so easily," she stated.

Reminding the Centre that over 1.5 crore migrant workers reside in Bengal who earn their living with respect, Banerjee questioned the BJP's policies to interfere in people's personal choices.

She asked, "Who are they to decide what we should eat and wear and where we should stay, which language we should speak?" If the BJP throws Bengali-speaking people to detention camps, then Bengal will politically detain them in camps by fighting in the upcoming polls and that day is not far, Banerjee warned.

The chief minister warned the saffron camp of a firm political rebuttal if the "persecution" continued.

"Let me warn you as bluntly as I can. We will not engage with you physically. If you do not stop what you are doing, then we will make you stop with everything at our disposal. Every incident of torture will be responded to with protests from here. Do not take us lightly," she said. PTI SMY BDC SMY NN