Mamata Banerjee on Saturday contested the claim that the central forces had fired in self-defence and asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t visit the families of the voters felled by CISF bullets in Cooch Behar despite being in north Bengal.

“This happens in the morning, and the Prime Minister, standing in Siliguri, claims they (the central forces) did it in self-defence? Is that done? Defence from what? What happened to whom, who got injured?” Mamata asked at a media conference in Siliguri in the evening.

Mamata had cut short her electoral programmes and rushed to Siliguri to be with the bereaved families in Sitalkuchi on Sunday, but the Election Commission late in the night banned political visits to Cooch Behar for 72 hours.

“He (Modi) was in Siliguri, with three helicopters in tow. Such a huge incident took place. Did he go there even once? The Prime Minister gets every advantage. He should have sacrificed meetings to go to the families first, to the bodies first. But he didn’t,” Mamata added.

Earlier in the day, Modi had told a rally at Kawakhali on the outskirts of Siliguri, less than 200km from Sitalkuchi, that he was saddened by the Cooch Behar firing. But he had appeared to blame Mamata by referring to some of her recent speeches in which she had urged people to “gherao” the central forces.

Although Modi did not use the word “self-defence”, the Election Commission and the state police establishment did, the official line being the forces had to fire to protect themselves, their weapons and the EVMs from a mob.

Mamata questioned the claim. “An attempt is being made to create an impression that the central forces were attacked.… But why isn’t there any footage?” the chief minister asked.

At the focus of the chief minister’s attack were Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. Mamata demanded that Shah resign.

“Planning like this, then murdering people, then giving clean chits, who is giving clean chits to whom?” Mamata asked.

Sources close to her said she would try to be somewhere closer to Cooch Behar on Sunday to challenge the Election Commission’s decision. She is believed to have told her aides that this was another instance of the poll panel’s partisan behaviour.

In her half-hour interaction with the media, Mamata poured her heart out against the commission and the central forces and accused the BJP-led central government, and Shah in particular, of using them to further the BJP’s electoral prospects in Bengal.

“Four civilians died because of firing by the central forces, who report to the Union home ministry.… The home minister should resign,” Mamata said.

She said the BJP had realised it would lose the Assembly elections and was trying to win by using brute force. She claimed the situation in the state resembled an informal President’s rule.

“Everything about the conduct of this election is unprecedented. It’s almost as though they are formally working here on the basis of an informally ordered Article 356…. I condemn the attitude of the Centre and whoever is supporting it,” Mamata said.

She urged the chief ministers of all non-BJP states and all non-BJP politicians from across the country to note how the BJP was ensuring the conduct of the elections in an undemocratic manner.

Sources close to Mamata said she was beginning to view the Cooch Behar firing as an inflection point, similar to the vandalism of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s bust in Calcutta in 2019 during a rally by Shah ahead of the final phase of the Lok Sabha polls. As many as 159 of the state’s 294 Assembly seats have yet to vote.

Mamata repeatedly said that she “firmly” believed that the untoward incidents occurring in the state since the administration came under the control of the Election Commission had been “planned”.

She criticised the poll panel for the numerous “unilateral” transfers of IAS and IPS officers in Bengal it had effected since assuming charge of the administration. “Anything the BJP requests today is carried out tomorrow,” she said.

“Even in Cooch Behar, you know very well.... He’s a BJP-appointed SP…. I’m ashamed of the statement he has issued,” Mamata said, referring to district police chief Debashis Dhar who had defended the central forces’ action.

Mamata also condemned the commission for appointing retired officials such as Vivek Dube, whom she has accused of a pro-BJP bias, as special observer for Bengal.

She accused Modi and Shah of disrespecting their posts by regularly insulting and threatening her during their campaign. “I think they (know that they) will lose the election, that’s why this vendetta…. Trying to scare the people. For every bullet, answer with votes…. We are winning this. I doubt if the BJP will cross even 70 (seats),” she said.

Mamata said she had figured out the Centre’s plan while she was in the field during the second phase of polling when her constituency, Nandigram, voted.

“Every phase, from 48 hours before that, they are terrorising the area, the central forces. Even women are not being spared. I saw this very closely, from the ground…. Their conduct in Nandigram opened my eyes. Before that, even I had not realised they were that dangerous,” she said.