Mamata likely to lead her third ‘Bhasha Andolan’ rally in Siliguri later this month

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee is expected to undertake a tour of the North Bengal region later this month, where she will conduct her party’s “Bhasa Andolan” (language movement) rally.

This will be the Chief Minister’s third language movement, focusing on the issue of alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states across India.

Sources within the Trinamool Congress revealed that Siliguri has been chosen as the venue for the third rally to be led by Mamata Banerjee.

The tentative date for that protest would be between August 17 and August 21, sources said.

The ruling party in Bengal is set to prioritise North Bengal in the run-up to the 2026 Assembly elections.

The BJP won from six out of seven constituencies in North Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Despite Trinamool Congress securing a landslide victory in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections, BJP candidates managed to win several seats in North Bengal. Recently, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari asserted that the BJP would win at least 40 out of the 54 Assembly constituencies in the region in the 2026 polls.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may also hold administrative meetings and inaugurate various state government projects during her trip to north Bengal. Banerjee will hold her second ‘Bhasha Andolan’ rally in tribal dominated Jhargram on August 6.

The first venue of the protest movement was Bolpur in Birbhum which is associated with Rabindranath Tagore. Banerjee had carried out the Bolpur rally on June 28.

Following the instruction of Banerjee, her party has initiated a protest against the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states. From her party’s July 21 Martyr’s Day rally in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress supremo also vowed to fight against the atrocities on Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states. She also announced that ‘Bhasha Andolan’ would be carried out to protest the incidents of harassment.

While launching the statewide ‘Bhasha Andolan’ from Bolpur on July 28, Banerjee made strong assertions that her government will not allow the Centre to implement the NRC in Bengal as long as she is alive.

“I will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal as long as I am alive. I am ready to lay down my life if required, but I will not let anybody snatch my language. I won’t allow detention camps here,” Banerjee said.