Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections would be fought on two key issues — driving out infiltrators and stopping infiltration — on the second day of his three-day visit to the state.
Launching a sharp attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said infiltration was no longer limited to West Bengal but had become a matter of national security. He alleged that West Bengal was the only state that had not provided land to the Border Security Force (BSF) for fencing along the India-Bangladesh border.
“Mamata Banerjee opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and is now opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. She is doing all this only to safeguard infiltrators,” Shah said. He claimed infiltrators were being settled in Bengal’s villages with the support of local panchayats and police stations, and were being provided documents to claim Indian citizenship. “Bengal’s demography is changing dangerously. But the Centre is determined to identify and drive out infiltrators from the soil of India and West Bengal,” he added.
The Home Minister said people of West Bengal had realised what he described as the TMC’s policy of appeasement towards infiltrators and were prepared to respond in the forthcoming elections. “The Assembly election in Bengal is scheduled in April. People are scared and worried about infiltration. We assure them that infiltrators will be driven out and Bengal will be flooded with development works. The BJP will remove Mamata Banerjee’s government with a two-thirds majority,” Shah said.
Addressing a press conference in Kolkata amid the ongoing SIR of the voter list, Shah struck a confident note about the BJP’s prospects in the 2026 Assembly elections. He also took digs at Mamata and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, while highlighting what he called the party’s consistent electoral growth in the state.
Citing past election results, Shah said the BJP’s vote share in West Bengal had steadily increased over the years. “In 2014, BJP’s vote share was 17 per cent. In 2016, it fell to 10 per cent. But in 2019, we won 18 Lok Sabha seats with 41 per cent votes. In 2021, we secured 38 per cent votes and 77 Assembly seats. In 2024, we won 12 Lok Sabha seats with 39 per cent votes. This continuity suggests that BJP will form the government in 2026,” he said.
Shah again accused the state government of pursuing appeasement politics, saying attempts were being made to conceal its consequences. “No ointment will work anymore,” he remarked.
Raising allegations of corruption, Shah questioned Mamata’s claims of clean governance. “Crores of rupees have been recovered from ministers’ houses. Partha Chatterjee, Anubrata Mondal, Jibankrishna Saha, Kunal Ghosh— one after another Trinamool leader has been jailed. How can you say there is no corruption in the state?” he asked.
He also targeted the TMC government over the absence of large industries in the state. Taking a swipe at Abhishek, Shah said, “Now only the nephew has the right to earn in Bengal. No one else does. Bengal has been completely destroyed in the industrial sector. The Left destroyed half of it, and you have destroyed the rest.”
With BJP state president Shamik Bhattacharya seated alongside him, Shah appealed to voters to give the BJP a chance to govern the state. “You gave a long time to the Congress, 34 years to the Left and 15 years to Mamata. This time, form a Bharatiya Janata Party government under the leadership of Modiji with a full majority. We will build a Bengal of gold and glory,” he said.
According to Shah, corruption and appeasement lie at the heart of West Bengal’s political turmoil, making a change of power in the state in the 2026 Assembly elections inevitable.
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