Modi sounds poll bugle in Bengal, Assam; flags illegal immigration

PM hits out at TMC & Congress over the illegal immigrant issue; Opposition accuses him of neglecting other concerns in both states

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening concluded a two-day visit to poll-bound West Bengal and Assam, where he launched infrastructure projects, interacted with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and addressed public meetings. 

Modi’s speeches in the two states were marked by claims that the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) were opposing the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise to protect “infiltrators” and “illegal immigrants”. He also accused the incumbent TMC of “unleashing lawlessness” in West Bengal. 

Elections are due for the 294-member West Bengal and 126-member Assam legislative assemblies by April-May 2026. 

In West Bengal, dense fog at Taherpur in Nadia, a district bordering Bangladesh, prevented Modi’s helicopter from landing at the makeshift helipad and forced him to return to the Kolkata airport, from where he addressed the crowd-in-waiting virtually on Saturday. In his speech, Modi accused the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government of corruption and nepotism. “The lanes and alleys of the state are resonating with the slogan ‘Banchte chai, BJP tai’ (Need BJP to live).” 

Nadia has a significant population of Matuas, or Namasudras, a Scheduled Caste (SC) migrant community from Bangladesh, who are apprehensive of losing their voting rights as a result of the SIR of electoral rolls. “The TMC is opposing SIR to save infiltrators from getting identified. They have no love lost for the tortured refugees to whom we are trying to grant citizenship through the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act),” Modi told the crowd in Taherpur. 

Speaking in the aftermath of the ‘Bankim da’ controversy in the recently-concluded Winter Session of Parliament, he reminisced about the creator of ‘Vande Mataram’, calling him “Rishi Bankim Babu”. He also reminded the crowd about the ongoing 150-year celebrations of India’s national song. 

The TMC countered Modi’s allegations, claiming his speech showed his “lack of concern” for the Matuas who have been feeling anxious over the possible deletion of names from the draft electoral rolls. “The PM never uttered a single word to allay the anxieties of Matuas, who fear loss of voting rights in the current SIR atmosphere. We are deeply disappointed,” said Mamata Bala Thakur, a TMC Rajya Sabha MP and a leader of the community. 

In West Bengal, where the names of over 5.8 million  people have been excluded from the draft electoral rolls under SIR, almost 15 billion entries have been flagged for logical discrepancies, and nearly 3 million voters categorised as unmapped. Matua leaders across party lines claimed that a major share of these voters belong to their community. 

At Taherpur, West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose unveiled national highway projects worth ₹3,200 crore since the PM couldn't make it to the programme. 

In Assam, Modi paid homage to 860 martyrs of the Assam Agitation, a movement against illegal immigrants, which ended in 1985 with the signing of the Assam Accord. He also unveiled an 80-foot statue of the state’s first chief minister Gopinath Bardoloi at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, and inaugurated the airport's new ₹4,000-crore terminal, which is developed by Guwahati International Airport Ltd (GIAL), with operations led by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL). 

Modi also laid the foundation stone of a ₹10,601-crore brownfield ammonia-urea plant in Dibrugarh district’s Namrup. The Assam Valley Fertiliser and Chemical Company Ltd (AVFCCL) will have an annual urea production capacity of 1.27 million metric tonnes, and the project is scheduled for commissioning in 2030. 

Addressing a public rally in Namrup, Modi accused the Congress, the principal opposition party in the state, of engaging in “anti-national” activities and helping illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to settle in Assam’s forests and lands. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has been in power in the state continuously since 2016. 

Modi said the Congress is not concerned about the identity, existence and pride of Assamese people, which the BJP has been trying to protect. “The Congress is opposing the revision of voter lists as it only wants to grab power,” he said. Of the four states and one Union Territory which are due for Assembly polls in April-May 2026, the Election Commission is not conducting the SIR only in Assam. 

Hours after Modi criticised the Congress for allegedly neglecting Assam, state party chief Gaurav Gogoi said the PM’s report card in the northeast was “extremely poor” across sectors. The Jorhat MP said that public sector undertakings (PSUs) in Assam have been shut down “one after another” over the last 11 years. 

“Although the BJP has been beating drums over the semiconductor project at Jagiroad, it has been set up only after shutting down a paper mill. Real industrial development would have taken place had the paper mill continued and the new project been set up at another location,” Gogoi said. 

“The second unit of the Namrup fertiliser plant was shut down in 2020. The fourth unit should have been commissioned long ago. As early as 2014, the central government had shown dreams to the people of Assam regarding the fourth unit, but only now has work begun,” he added. 

 

With inputs from agencies