Binpur (West Bengal) [India], March 28 (ANI): Trinamool Congress General Secretary and MP, Abhishek Banerjee, slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Uniform Civil Code Bill in Gujarat, alleging that the BJP will 'dictate personal lives' if voted to power in West Bengal.

The Gujarat State Assembly recently passed the Gujarat Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill 2026, providing for mandatory marriage registration, equal maintenance rights for women across all religions and making registration of live-in relationships mandatory. The BJP government in Uttarakhand was the first one to pass legislation for UCC.

Addressing an election rally in Binpur Assembly constituency on Friday, Abhishek Banerjee said, 'The BJP is trying to change the Constitution. They had stated that they would implement UCC. The UCC Bill was tabled in Gujarat's Legislative Assembly. If UCC is implemented by the BJP, STs will be impacted the most. What we shall wear, eat, or say will be decided by leaders in Delhi. They are not satisfied with just our votes; they also want to dictate our personal lives.'

Backing TMC candidate from Binpur seat, Birbaha Hansda, Banerjee said, 'Everyone has the right to do politics and every party will contest the polls, but you must compare the candidates. On one side, you have Birbaha Hansda, the daughter of the soil. On the other side, the workers of the BJP are not even obeying the instructions of their candidate. He is from Howrah. He was badly defeated by Kalipada Soren when he last contested in the LS polls, with a margin of over 1.5 lakh. And now he is contesting again. If a student fails repeatedly, even the school does not give him repeated chances.'

The TMC MP also criticised the BJP over the hike in prices of LPG cylinders, asking the Centre to promise no further hike after the Assembly election.

He said, 'Prices have skyrocketed for LPG from Rs 400 to Rs 1,000. They are holding meetings every day and have temporarily paused price hikes until the polls. The day polls are over, LPG may go up to Rs 2,000, and petrol and diesel to Rs 200. I challenge Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah: come and promise the people that prices will not rise for five years. If they do, AITC will withdraw its candidates.'

'This is how BJP operates. They haven't done even a single development work, not even a single light post, yet they talk about double-engine development. Bengal is still owed Rs 2 lakh crore. They force people to stand in queues for demonetisation, SIR, LPG. Answer them democratically through your vote,' he added.

The polling for West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections will be held in two phases, on April 23 and April 29, with counting of votes for both phases scheduled for May 4. (ANI)