Message from Sonam :
20th JULY
आज़ादी का दूसरा आन्दोलन
भय मुक्त भारत, अन्याय मुक्त भारत
Freedom from injustice (Like paper leaks)
Freedom from Fear (my illegal detention)
India’s 2nd FREEDOM MOVEMENT
March to the Parliament
Please make it a big success
Sent through Gitanjali
from my illegal detention at Safdarjung
Central Forces under Amit Shah have become BJP’s PRIVATE ARMY- A gang of licensed thugs unleashed on the people of Bengal.
In Udaynarayanpur, an elderly man went to cast his vote with his son. Too frail to walk unaided, his son tried to help him into the booth. Central Forces pushed and manhandled both. The old man collapsed, was rushed to Amta Hospital and declared dead on arrival.
Since dawn, these Central Forces have been terrorising ordinary citizens- slapping women, assaulting the elderly, attacking even children. This is the SITALKUCHI MENTALITY of 2021: cold-blooded, merciless violence against unarmed civilians. BJP paid a heavy price for the blood of innocents in 2021. They will pay an even heavier price in 2026.
And to the JALLADS roaming Bengal: it doesn’t matter which state you come from. It doesn’t matter whose political patronage shields you. Every single one of you involved in this barbarism will be hunted down and made to face the full force of the law. Your reign of terror will end in total ruin.
This vote is for the Bengal we love. For its people, its spirit, its shared future.
I urge everyone to vote with courage and conviction. Let your vote firmly reject the harassment people faced in the name of long lines for petty politics.
My exit poll! As I leave #Bengal, it would be a disservice not to say this: I have come to deeply admire the way women inhabit space here. There is a quiet, almost subconscious elevation of women as independent beings . something that stands in stark contrast to the entrenched misogyny that still finds resonance across much of northern India. Perhaps it stems from a cultural understanding of shakti. A form of empowerment that manifests here in ways both subtle and profound, unlike anywhere else in the country, even in the south.
Any woman journalist who has covered political rallies across India will recognize the difference immediately. Other states, a crowd is not just a logistical challenge, it carries risk. the inevitability of wandering hands, the violation masked by chaos. Here, the crowds are no less dense, the air no less heavy with sweat and alcohol—but the hands, for the most part, do not grope. Men step aside to make way. When contact happens, as it inevitably does in chaos, there is visible embarrassment rather than entitlement. What you encounter is not chivalry, but something far rarer: equality. And equality feels far more meaningful. Was never a fan of chivalry in any case :)
There is more. Women politicians across party lines campaign with a striking freedom, aggressive, sharp, unapologetically irreverent, often using what would elsewhere be labelled as ‘masculine’ rhetoric. In most states, such behaviour would invite judgment, even censure. Here, it is met with acceptance, applause. What feels liberating to an outsider is, in Bengal, simply normal. What we frame as empowerment here is a cultural undercurrent.
I have covered four elections in this state, and each time I have returned with the same sense of awe. Bengal, meanwhile, ambles on with a certain bemusement, as if unaware of what sets it apart. But it is a big deal. And perhaps the most remarkable part is that Bengal does not think so.
Governments will come and go. One can only hope that this constant endures, not just how Bengal sees its women, but how, in many ways, it doesn’t. ♥️♥️♥️
27 lakh voters have been deleted
Only 138 of them got a chance to get a tribunal hearing. And 136 / 138 were put back in the voting list.
That means most deleted voters are likely genuine voters but no one will hear their appeal in time for voting.