On Thursday (21st March), Trinamool Congress candidate (Bishnupur constituency) Sujata Mondal courted controversy after she tried to intimidate villagers into voting for her party.
The incident took place during her election campaign in the Ondha Vidhan Sabha constituency in the Bankura district of West Bengal. While speaking to the local women, Mondal threatened them with consequences for casting their votes in favour of the rival BJP.
“You are casting your vote for the BJP during the times of elections. You are clicking on the Loutus (big flower). Let me say this straight,” she cautioned.
“I do not care if the media or other people are listening to this. If I see that Trinamool Congress did not get a lead from here, we will not come here to listen to your grievances,” Sujata Mondal threatened.
She further mocked the villagers, “This is the truth. I am telling it now. No one from our party is going to come here to listen to your problems. You figure it out with the BJP.”
“It cannot happen that TMC will work here when BJP keeps getting elected from this seat. Wherever Trinamool Congress will be in the lead, I will even come there even in the darkness of the night to listen to your problems,” the TMC candidate continued.
We will not come to listen to your problems: Sujata Mondal
Sujata Mondal was heard saying, “Where Trinamool Congress will not get any lead, forget about me, my party workers also will not come…As a TMC ‘soldier’, I will not tolerate that Mamata Banerjee will keep giving but only getting treachery in return.”
This is not the first time that a TMC candidate has issued threats ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Recently, party candidate (North Malda) Prasun Banerjee was heard threatening the central paramilitary forces and officials of the Election Commission.
When Mondal abused Dalits as ‘beggars’
Prior to the 2021 Vidhan Sabha elections, Sujata Mondal stirred the hornet’s nest by referring to the Dalit community as ‘beggars.’
While speaking to News 18 Bangla, Sujata Mondal claimed, “Even though Mamata Banerjee has helped the poor Scheduled Castes, yet their scarcity will never mitigate.”
Furthermore, the TMC leader remarked, “Mane ekta kotha thake na ki keu thake sobhabe bhikari aar keu thake obhabe bhikari. Ekhaner Scheduled Caste gulo holo Sobhabe bhikari. (There is a saying that some are beggars by nature while others are beggars by circumstance. The Scheduled Castes here are beggars by nature).”
Sujata Mandal of Trinamool, close to Mamata Banerjee, blatantly accuses the Scheduled Caste community of Bengal as “beggars by nature”.
— BJP SC MORCHA भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अनुसूचित जाति मोर्चा (@BJPSCMorcha) April 9, 2021
Can the people of Bengal give TMC a befitting reply and throw them out of power? Dalit Samaaj (Rajbanshi, Matuas, Namasudras) deserves better. pic.twitter.com/lssFDk8PVL
She also accused the Dalit community of being ungrateful and siding with rival BJP. “Mamata Banerjee has done so much for them but they have now sold themselves to the BJP in exchange for money. And now, they are committing atrocities on us,” Sujata Mondal alleged.
It must be mentioned that the TMC candidate was thrashed by people of the Arambagh constituency, where she was fielded as a candidate in the 2021 Vidhan Sabha elections. She lost out to Madhusudhan Bag of the BJP by over 7,142 votes.
