Political tensions in West Bengal have escalated ahead of the Assembly elections, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday launching a sharp attack on the BJP over the Delimitation Bill. The ruling party described the move as a “dangerous” exercise being advanced under the guise of women’s empowerment to weaken Bengal’s parliamentary representation.
In a post on X, the TMC reiterated that while it supports women’s reservation, it opposes the proposal in its current form.
“In the name of ‘women empowerment,’ @BJP4India is stealthily pushing a dangerous delimitation exercise. Their real agenda is to increase parliamentary seats for BJP-ruled states while punishing and weakening Bengal’s representation. We have always strongly supported women’s political reservation and greater representation. But what BJP is doing now is not empowerment. It is a calculated political conspiracy to reduce Bengal’s voice in Parliament,” the party said.
Asserting that “bullets cannot win here” and that people would deliver a “crushing answer” through the ballot box, the TMC urged the BJP to stop what it called “dirty games” and instead focus on fielding more women candidates if it was serious about empowerment.
“If they are genuinely serious about women’s participation, they should stop these dirty games and instead focus on fielding more women candidates and actually helping them win,” the party added.
The TMC also accused the BJP and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of conspiring to “flood Bengal with outsiders” and misusing the NRC to target communities such as the Rajbanshis through the electoral SIR process.
“With the active help of Central Forces, @BJP4India and @himantabiswa are conspiring to flood Bengal with outsiders from Assam to rig the voter list and change our demography. They ran the NRC in Assam. Now they are weaponising the same NRC by sending notices to the Rajbanshi community. The game plan is clear: Create fear and exclusion, rig the voter rolls, steal the election through manipulated ballots,” the TMC alleged in its post.
Amid the escalating war of words, West Bengal is preparing for a two-phase Assembly election on April 23 and 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.
The contest is expected to be intense, with the incumbent TMC seeking a fourth consecutive term, while the BJP aims to come to power after a strong performance in the previous elections.
(With inputs from ANI)