Fighting alone against all BJP-ruled states & Centre for people: Mamata

Kolkata: With the 2026 Assembly elections just days away, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee intensified her attack on the BJP, claiming on Monday that the Centre and 19 NDA-ruled states have joined forces against her as she continues to fight alone for the rights of ordinary people. She also expressed confidence that her party would win more than 226 seats in the Assembly polls.

Addressing a rally in Birbhum’s Suri, Banerjee said the BJP will not be able to win the Bengal elections by using forces from Delhi. “Trinamool Congress will secure over 226 seats in the Bengal assembly elections,” Banerjee stated. She also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme is being telecast to influence young minds.

“They (BJP) are distributing money...They have transferred everyone (officers) to other states so that nobody can catch them. Money, drugs, arms and voters are being smuggled into Bengal. People are being brought in trains and buses from Bihar to cast their votes,” Banerjee said adding: “A total of 19 states and the central government have come together against me. I am enough for them. I will continue my fight for the common people because I do not think I am alone. I have the blessings of people,” she said.

She also launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP at a public meeting in Durgapur West. Speaking at Chaturanga Maidan, Banerjee also criticised the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar without taking his name.

“Don’t even talk to me. How dare you! I am still the elected Chief Minister,” she said. Banerjee accused the ECI of removing officials and undermining her government. “All the officers have been transferred. They have taken away everything under me. They have made it a super emergency,” she said.

“Vanish Kumar and the BJP have come together. What the BJP is saying is parrot talk! They are playing it up. It seems like they are just saving themselves and their families,” she alleged. Banerjee further alleged that the BJP was trying to intimidate her party candidates.

Trinamool Congress chief also expressed her apprehensions that the central law-enforcement agencies, at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre, might start arresting the TMC leaders so that they cannot work for the party.

Taking a swipe at Modi, she asked whether he wanted to become the chief minister of Bengal. Banerjee said Modi’s statement from an election rally that he was the candidate in all 294 assembly seats mirrored her own often-repeated assertion during election campaigns since 2021.

Regarding the deletion of names, she said: “The votes were cut. I even went to court to seek justice. The names of 32 lakh people were mentioned. There is still a lot left,” she said.

“If you (BJP) have the courage, hold elections on the list of 2024. You cannot make people vote by cutting their names. Otherwise, your Prime Minister won on this list, let him resign.”

“Is everyone an infiltrator? The people of Durgapur are infiltrators? You call the people of the border as infiltrators; you are also infiltrators? There is a limit to disrespecting people. Won’t you raise your head against this? Won’t you wake up yet?”

Alleging that officials were directed to target TMC, she said: “Today I received news that the top officials are going from district to district. They are going to other people in the district administration and telling them that all the booth agents of the TMC, who are important workers, must be arrested in the ganja case.”