mamata-sets-target-of-winning-over-215-seats-in-2026-polls

In a politically charged address at Netaji Indoor Stadium, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of manipulating the state's voter list through online fraud.

 

She alleged that the BJP, with the assistance of the Election Commission (EC), was inserting 'ghost voters' into the electoral rolls, a strategy she claims was already used in Maharashtra and Delhi to influence election outcomes.

 

The Bengal CM claimed that instead of conducting on-ground surveys, the EC, through its operators and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), was facilitating the addition of non-Bengali voters from states like Haryana and Gujarat onto Bengal's voter list.

 

She presented documents purportedly proving that multiple individuals from different states were linked to the same Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers of Bengal voters.

 

"For example, Haryana's Sonia Devi has been linked with Mohammad Shahidul Islam of Murshidabad’s Raninagar. Similarly, Haryana’s Manjit shares the same EPIC number with Bengal’s Mohammad Ali Hossain. How is this possible?" Mamata questioned while addressing party workers.

 

 

She further alleged that this was part of a larger conspiracy engineered by the EC’s office in Delhi, where Aadhaar card fraud was allegedly being carried out to merge voters from Rajasthan, Bihar, and Haryana into Bengal’s rolls.

 

CM Mamata has set an ambitious target of securing over 215 seats in the 2026 elections to the 294-member assembly, asserting that her party TMC would ensure a significant reduction in the BJP’s tally.

 

The BJP bagged 77 seats in the 2021 assembly elections.

 

“We will win more than 215 seats out of 294, in the next Bengal assembly polls and make sure the BJP’s numbers decline further,” Banerjee said while addressing the meeting.

 

Taking a dig at the BJP, the TMC supremo recalled the saffron party’s slogans in the past elections.

 

“In the 2021 assembly polls, BJP leaders said ‘200 paar’ but were defeated. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, they claimed '400 paar' but they could not even secure a majority. What Abhishek (Banerjee) said is absolutely correct. We will achieve a two-thirds majority, but you must ensure an even bigger victory. This time, BJP nominees must lose their deposits,” she said.

 

Echoing Mamata Banerjee’s sentiments, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee called upon party workers to ensure a decisive win for the party.

 

The event by the Bengal's ruling party is said to be politically significant as the party supremo gave a roadmap to combat the saffron camp's onslaught in Bengal's political landscape before the next year's Assembly elections.

 

 

In response, Mamata Banerjee has directed her party leaders and workers to intensify voter list verification efforts across the state. A state committee has been formed to examine electoral rolls at the grassroots level, with a mandate to report findings to the party office every three days.

 

Sounding a clarion call, Mamata urged her cadre to ensure that no fraudulent voter entries go unchecked. "Bengalis know how to respect outsiders, but we will not let them occupy Bengal through electoral fraud. This is a direct attack on our democracy, and we must resist it with all our strength," she asserted.

 

Mamata Banerjee reiterated that the TMC would not tolerate any manipulation of the democratic process. "Our game will be bigger this time. In the 2026 Assembly elections, we will counter their conspiracy with greater force. The fight starts with securing our voter list," she declared, referencing the TMC’s 2021 election slogan, Khela Hobe (The game is on).

 

 

Mamata Banerjee also appealed to Bengal's electorate to verify their names in the voter list. She warned that BJP's strategy aimed to serve two purposes: first, to introduce ghost voters to tip the electoral balance against TMC, and second, to disenfranchise legitimate Bengali voters.

 

Additionally, she urged party workers to identify government officials complicit in the alleged fraud. "This corruption is happening right from the block level to the district level in exchange for bribes. We need to expose those who are selling our democracy for packets of sweets," she asserted.

 

Mamata set the goal of two-third majority in the next year’s elections in front of its party workers.

 

 

During her speech, Mamata Banerjee lauded the role of women within her party, highlighting that 39% of TMC’s Lok Sabha candidates are women, far exceeding the 33 per cent benchmark set by the EC. She pointed out that unlike other parties, TMC nominates women not in weak seats but in constituencies where they can win. "In both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, our women fight like Royal Bengal Tigers," she said, referencing MPs like Sagarika Ghosh, Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, Kalyan Banerjee, and Derek O’Brien.

 

She concluded her speech with a warning to the BJP: "Their days are numbered. They have targeted Bengal because they know that no other state can resist them like Bengal can. But they have underestimated us. The fight has just begun!"