Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday intensified his attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission of India (ECI) following a Supreme Court order directing the Election Commission (EC) to publish details of so-called “logical discrepancies” in the voter list.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee had earlier accused the BJP of using the Election Commission to remove the names of legitimate voters in West Bengal under the pretext of identifying discrepancies. The issue eventually reached the Supreme Court, which on Monday instructed the Election Commission to make public the list of such discrepancies.
Addressing a rally at Kachari Maidan in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, Abhishek claimed the court’s directive was a vindication of the Trinamool’s stand. He said the Supreme Court had accepted the party’s demand that the list of discrepancies be published, describing the ruling as “hard slaps on both cheeks” and a major setback for the BJP and the EC.
Directly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Abhishek questioned whether political power lay with “10 crore people” or with what he described as the BJP’s “brute force”. He asserted that the TMC had defeated the BJP in court and would do so again in the elections.
The TMC leader also made strong electoral claims, stating that his party would win more than 250 seats in the 2026 Assembly elections and reduce the BJP’s tally to below 50 seats. He said attempts to pressure the ruling party would be answered by the people of Bengal, whom he described as unwilling to “surrender” or “sell their spine”.
Abhishek alleged that unable to counter the TMC politically, the BJP was trying to defame Bengal by using central agencies, and constitutional institutions. He claimed that after failing to remove the names of 58 lakh voters earlier, attempts were now being made to “trim” the electoral rolls by issuing notices citing logical discrepancies to nearly 1.36 crore voters. He further alleged that fear linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process had led to the deaths of 92 people over the past two months, prompting the TMC to move the court.
According to Abhishek, the Supreme Court not only ordered the publication of the list of discrepancies but also directed that the details be made public. He said the list must be displayed at panchayat offices, clearly mentioning who is being summoned and for what reason.
“This is exactly what we wanted,” Abhishek said, alleging that the BJP intended to punish those who do not vote for it by removing names from the voter list. He claimed the Supreme Court had completely thwarted these plans.
Responding to Prime Minister Modi’s remarks at a rally in Singur on Sunday, where he called for a change in the Bengal government, Abhishek said what truly needed to change was the BJP’s “arrogance”.
The TMC leader also accused the Centre of withholding Bengal’s dues, claiming that around ₹2 lakh crore owed to the state had been stopped because the BJP was reduced to just over 70 seats in the last election. He urged party workers to ensure the BJP’s tally falls below 50 seats this time, saying only then would its “arrogance” be broken.
Abhishek also issued controversial instructions to party workers regarding alleged vote-buying by the BJP. He claimed the BJP would distribute money during elections and urged workers to accept it, calling it “Bengal’s money”, but to defeat the BJP at the ballot box.
Referring to North 24 Parganas, where the TMC holds four of the five Lok Sabha seats and lost Bongaon narrowly, Abhishek called upon party workers to foil what he described as a conspiracy by the BJP and the EC. He urged them to defeat the BJP decisively in the Assembly elections, not constituency by constituency but “booth by booth”.
Also read: TMC's Abhishek flags ‘dead’ voter issue, targets EC, Centre
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