West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the central government of attempting to create divisions within India by linking bills on women's reservation and electoral delimitation. Speaking at an election rally in Cooch Behar district in North Bengal, Banerjee claimed that these legislative efforts were part of a broader strategy by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to remove names from voter lists and introduce the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Banerjee described the connection between the women's reservation bill and the delimitation process as a "conspiracy" aimed at disenfranchisement. She questioned the delay in implementing the women's reservation bill, which she noted had been passed some time ago, and highlighted that 37% of Trinamool Congress’s elected Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha are women.

In addition to her remarks on the bills, Banerjee criticized Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly breaching the Model Code of Conduct during her recent visit to East Bardhaman district. The chief minister claimed that Sitharaman distributed "weaver cards"—identity documents issued by the Union Textiles Ministry granting handloom weavers access to subsidies and concessional loans—in an unauthorized manner. Sitharaman had handed out these cards to local handloom workers during the visit on Wednesday.

The BJP has not responded to these allegations, and the government has maintained that the bills and related activities are part of routine legislative and administrative functions. The opposition has long expressed concerns about the potential impact of delimitation and the NRC on voter rolls, but the ruling party has rejected such claims as politically motivated.