Mamata Banerjee calls Amit Shah 'acting PM', warns PM Modi of 'Mir Zafar' betrayal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of “behaving like an acting Prime Minister” and warning Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be cautious of him.

Mamata said, “He is working like an acting PM. But the PM knows everything. I am sorry to say. We can request the PM, don’t trust him blindly, one day he will turn against you like a Mir Jafar! Be careful.”

In a direct attack, Banerjee compared Shah to Mir Jafar, the 18th-century military general of Bengal who betrayed Nawab Siraj ud Daulah in the Battle of Plassey. “We can request the PM, don’t trust him blindly, one day he will turn against you like a Mir Jafar! Be careful,” she said.

Speaking to reporters outside Kolkata airport after returning from flood-ravaged north Bengal, Banerjee alleged



that the Election Commission was working under Shah’s influence in the name of conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

“Whatever the Election Commission is doing in the name of implementing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, it is doing at the behest of Shah, who is behaving like an acting Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the PM is aware of all his deeds,” the chief minister said.

Questioning the Election Commission’s decision to carry out the SIR amid floods and festivals, Banerjee said, “Their leader comes to Bengal and says we shall cut off one lakh names from the voter list! Can SIR be conducted in the middle of such natural calamity in 15 days, during such rains and festival season? Is the EC BJP party's commission or a commission for democratic rights for the people? This is all Amit Shah's ‘khel’.”