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Mamata Banerjee
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the ruling TMC over alleged lawlessness and accused the ruling party of encouraging infiltration and unleashing 'maha jungleraj'. Addressing an election rally here in Birbhum district, he alleged the Trinamool Congress' slogan of 'Maa-Mati-Manush' (mother, land, people) has become nothing more than rhetoric. "Cottage industry has been declining in West Bengal, while the TMC has turned making crude bombs into a cottage industry," Modi said. The Bogtui carnage of 2022, in which around 10 women and children were burnt alive in the district, bears testimony to the TMC's 'maha jungle raj', the Prime Minister asserted. "Land grabbing by infiltrators under the TMC regime has reached dangerous proportions. Infiltrators are usurping the jobs of locals by accepting contract work for less money. They will be deported and their facilitators jailed after the BJP comes to power in Bengal," he said. Modi charged the TMC with insulting adivasis,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal for its alleged misrule and appealed to voters to oust the TMC from power in the upcoming assembly polls. Addressing a gathering in Haldia, the backyard of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Modi said that the ruling dispensation in the state was "pulling Bengal back". "The country is walking on the path of progress, while TMC's 'nirmam sarkar' is pulling Bengal back. To usher in 'Viksit Bengal', it's essential that the party is removed from power," he claimed. He also alleged that the "TMC cheated Bengal's youth on two counts -- destroyed the private sector and looted government posts for money". "Investment does not come in an atmosphere of fear, but in a climate of trust that the BJP will bring in Bengal," Modi said at the industrial hub. He accused the TMC of following a "religion-based reservation policy to secure its vote bank". "People's huge attendance at Haldia rally despite
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the BJP of deleting names of over 90 lakh people from the voter lists to grab power in the state and asserted that her party will win the upcoming elections. Addressing a public rally at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas, the TMC supremo said the ruling party would move a court to ensure that all those deleted from the electoral rolls are reinstated. "You deleted names of over 90 lakh people to grab power in Bengal, but we will win," she said while attacking the BJP over the Special Intensive Revision exercise in the state. Her comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the SIR exercise in the state. The TMC supremo also alleged, "People are being tortured in BJP-ruled states for speaking in Bengali. It terms Bengali as a foreign language, and described Bengali-speaking people as infiltrators.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the BJP and the Election Commission over voter deletions during the SIR exercise and said her party will move a court again to resist the removal of electors from the rolls. Her comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision in the state. "You will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move a court again to resist the exclusion of names," Banerjee said while attacking her principal challenger BJP over the roll revision exercise. Banerjee had in February argued in the Supreme Court as she sought an intervention in the SIR process. The EC figures, which pushed the total deletion to over 90.83 lakh names from the original voter base of 7.66 crore in October 2025, showed that the proportion of removal of electors now remains at over 11.85 per cent. Addressing a poll rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not raise Pakistan's threat to attack Kolkata, during his poll rallies in West Bengal a day earlier. "You (PM) target Bengal during election rallies; but when Pakistan talks of attacking Bengal, you do not utter a word. You should resign," she said at a poll rally here in Nadia district. "Why did the prime minister not raise the issue during his rally in Bengal? When Pakistan's defence minister says they will attack Kolkata, why didn't the prime minister say that 'we will take strong action'?" she posed a day after Modi addressed a poll rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar. "Just like we do not accept any threat to the country, we will also not take the threat to Kolkata lying down," she said. Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday warned India that it would respond with a strike in Kolkata to any "future misadventures". "If India tries to stage any false flag operation this
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made the Malda gherao of judicial officers the fulcrum of the BJP's campaign on lawlessness in West Bengal, accusing the TMC government of running a "maha jungleraj" and pitching the 2026 assembly polls as a straight contest between the "bhay" spread by the ruling party and the BJP's "bharosa". Addressing his first election rally in Cooch Behar in north Bengal after the poll schedule was announced, Modi used the Malda incident to sharpen the BJP's twin campaign planks of "poor law and order" and alleged demographic change, besides the issues of safety of women and infiltration from Bangladesh to attack the TMC. "Just a few days ago, the entire nation witnessed judicial officers being held hostage in Malda. What kind of government is this, where judges and constitutional procedures are not safe? We cannot expect such a government to keep the people of Bengal safe," Modi said. The Prime Minister was referring to Wednesday night's incident in ...
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday blamed AIMIM and ISF for the gherao of judicial officers in Malda district and accused the Congress and the BJP of instigation. Stating that the mastermind behind Wednesday's gherao of the judicial officers for several hours in Malda district's Mothabari was arrested by the state's CID, Banerjee claimed that this police organisation is still under her control and not of the Election Commission. "The BJP loaned him (the accused) from the AIMIM and brought him here," she alleged, while addressing an election rally at Harirampur in Dakshin Dinajpur district. "ISF is with them; Congress and BJP have also provided instigation," the Trinamool Congress chief alleged, stating that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested the main accused, advocate Mofakkarul Islam, from Bagdogra airport when he was trying to flee. "It is they who engineered the violence in Malda's Mothabari," she said. Alleging that goons are being brought i
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday vowed to drive the BJP out of the state first and then from Delhi, while alleging that the Election Commission is running the administration despite an elected government. "It is my promise, I will drive out the BJP first from Bengal and then from Delhi," the firebrand TMC leader said. Addressing an election rally here, she condemned Wednesday's gherao and attack on seven judicial officers in Malda, saying the central agencies, either the CBI or the NIA, will now take action on the Supreme Court's orders. "One should not indulge in such activities before elections. The whole state has been disgraced because of this incident," Banerjee said, adding she favours peace and takes along people of all communities. She accused the poll body of acting at the BJP's behest, alleging development work in the state has stalled. "The EC has doomed Bengal at the behest of the BJP; development work has stopped in the state," Banerjee, who has
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday turned BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's nomination filing from Bhabanipur into a high-voltage political spectacle, claiming he had a "shortcut" to bring about "paribartan" (change) in West Bengal: defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her own constituency. Shah said while the BJP would otherwise have to win 170 seats to form the government, a victory for Adhikari in Bhabanipur alone would automatically bring change to the state's politics. Addressing a rally ahead of a massive roadshow from Hazra Crossing in south Kolkata before accompanying Adhikari for his nomination filing, Shah framed the Bhabanipur contest not merely as another assembly seat battle but as the symbolic centrepiece of the BJP's campaign to unseat the Trinamool Congress government in the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections. "Change will happen in West Bengal. But should there be a change in Bhabanipur or not?" Shah asked the crowd. "With folded hands, I appeal to the .
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday alleged that infiltration has increased to such an extent that Bengal's existence is at stake. Addressing an election rally here, he also accused the Mamata Banerjee regime of reducing West Bengal to a state of lawlessness when incidents of firing and bombing take place almost every day. "A storm is raging everywhere in Bengal; a storm for Poriborton (change) and say goodbye to Mamata Banerjee," Shah said. "There is corruption everywhere. There is syndicate raj everywhere. Time to usher in Sonar Bangla (golden Bengal) as dreamt by Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and others," he said, urging the people to vote for the BJP candidates. Shah addressed the rally before participating in the filing of nomination papers for the party's Bhabanipur candidate Suvendu Adhikari.
The Supreme Court on Thursday took serious note of seven judicial officials engaged in SIR exercise being taken "hostage" in West Bengal's Malda district, terming it deplorable and seeking responses from the state home secretary, DGP and other officials for their "inaction". A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi permitted the Election Commission to seek either CBI or NIA probe into the unfortunate incident. It said the incident appears to be a "calculated" and "motivated move to demoralise judicial officers" and to stop the ongoing electoral process. Observing that the law and order machinery in the state has "broken down", the CJI came down hard on state officials for their delayed action in the issue. Seven judicial officials, including three women, were taken hostage by the anti-social elements at Malda district, the CJI said, adding that he himself had to monitor the situation till late night on Wednesday. The top court referred
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will participate in BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's nomination filing from the Bhabanipur assembly constituency in the city and accompany him during a roadshow in the area on Thursday, party leaders said. Shah will join Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, in a show of strength in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's political bastion. According to BJP leaders, Shah and Adhikari will begin a roadshow from Hazra Crossing around noon. The party's state president Samik Bhattacharya will also accompany them. The roadshow will pass through different parts of Bhabanipur before ending at the Survey Building, where Adhikari will file his nomination papers. Party sources said the convoy will stop around 200 metres before the Survey Building, and Shah will walk with Adhikari to the office where the BJP leader will submit his papers. BJP leaders said Shah's participation in the nomination filing was intended to underline the importance t
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the poll panel's actions under the SIR exercise risk disenfranchisement of genuine voters in Bengal. In her three-page letter, she also alleged that the actions of the Election Commission were undermining the democratic and fundamental rights of the people. "The decisions being taken by the Election Commission of India appear to be undermining the democratic and fundamental rights of the people," Banerjee said. She said, "This is not the standard expected of a constitutional authority." Banerjee urged the commission to ensure "free and fair elections" and uphold constitutional principles. The elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases - on April 23 and 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the BJP was trying to include illegal voters from Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the electoral rolls of the state to turn the poll outcome in favour of the saffron party. Addressing an election rally in Paschim Medunipur's Chandrakona, Banerjee also reiterated her plea before the gathering to ignore who the TMC candidates in the state's assembly segments were and consider her as the candidate in all 294 seats. "I was informed by Abhishek (Banerjee) yesterday that he had to rush to the EC office in Kolkata from the middle of his campaign schedule upon receiving information that about 30,000 forms were submitted in a single day to include fresh voters," the TMC supremo said. "The BJP is trying to include illegal voters from Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the electoral rolls of Bengal. They are planning to transport outstation voters by means of railways, as they did in Bihar," she ...
In the calculus of West Bengal's electoral politics, Bhabanipur has emerged as the X factor. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is pitted in a pitched battle with the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in her long-held bastion, making it the state's most closely watched Assembly seat. While the Trinamool Congress is looking to retain its stronghold in south Kolkata with organisational strength and emotion, the BJP wants to breach the keep by banking on social arithmetic and symbolism. The fight is reminiscent of the electoral clash between Banerjee and Adhikari in the 2021 Assembly polls, when the chief minister had taken on her protege-turned-rival, who had then just joined the BJP, in the latter's home turf, Nandigram. Banerjee had lost the fight, although the BJP had been drubbed by the TMC five years ago. She later won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypolls. The turf has changed, and it remains to be seen if the result does too. Mamata Banerjee's party is banking on the "'ghorer meye' (girl next doo
The Trinamool Congress slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday with a counter to his "chargesheet" against the Mamata Banerjee government, accusing the BJP of trying to polarise the people of poll-bound West Bengal and evade accountability for its own record on a host of issues, including women's safety. Hours after Shah's press conference here, the incumbent TMC questioned the BJP-led Centre over the prolonged violence in Manipur, women's safety in BJP-ruled states and the Centre's handling of illegal immigration. Senior TMC leaders Mahua Moitra, Bratya Basu and Kirti Azad held a joint press conference where the trio targeted the Union home minister over his criticism of the TMC government on women's safety. "Amit Shah is talking about women's security. What is the condition of women's safety in BJP-ruled states?" "Shah should first answer about violence in Manipur, which has bled continuously for the past three years," TMC MP Moitra said. The counter-charges came after