"BJP attempting to silence all opposition parties before next year's polls": Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 1 (ANI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Paty-led central government, alleging that the party was attempting to silence all opposition parties before the next Lok Sabha election and wanted to arrest all opposition leaders before the polls.
"They (the BJP) are attempting to silence all opposition parties before the next year's election. They want to arrest all opposition leaders before next year's polls, so that the entire country becomes empty and they can take all the votes themselves," Banerjee said while addressing the reporters at the state secretariat 'Nabanna'.
The Chief Minister's statement comes amid a slew of raids by the central agencies on opposition leaders in various states. Banerjee's remarks also come in response to the recent summons of Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 2 to question him in connection with its ongoing probe into the Delhi excise policy case.
"But I am happy that the election commission has voted in favour of the INDIA Alliance name. My many congratulations to the election commission for taking a bold decision," the CM added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Monday, in its reply in the Delhi High Court, that it can't regulate political alliances while responding to a plea against the use of the INDIA acronym for the Alliance of opposition parties.
"The answering respondent (ECI) is constituted under Article 324 of the Constitution of India for superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of all elections to parliament, state legislatures and the offices of president and vice president," the ECI stated.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha on Wednesday alleged that the BJP government at the Centre made a "scheme" to arrest the top leaders of the Opposition INDIA alliance and the first arrest under this will be that of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Chadha said that the formation of the INDIA alliance made BJP leaders fearful of the loss in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. So the ruling BJP made a strategy to implicate the top leaders of the INDIA alliance and put them in jail.
"When top leaders are in jail, how can they contest elections and run their parties? If the top leaders of the INDIA alliance are in jail, then only the BJP can effectively campaign, and in that way, they can win the election," Chadha said in a press conference. (ANI)