KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday the people of West Bengal to give the BJP a chance to govern the state, asserting that the party would replace “fear, corruption, and misgovernance” with good governance.
Shah, while addressing a press conference in Kolkata on the second day of his three-day-long visit to Bengal, confidently claimed that the BJP would form the government in the state in 2026.
Shah also came down heavily on the state Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the ruling party in the state, for their appeasement politics.
The Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal was abetting infiltration of Bangladeshis, which has "dangerously altered" the state's demography over the past few years,” Shah alleged.
"We will not only identify infiltrators, but we'll also drive them out. Bengal will have a new BJP government after April 15, 2026, as people have made up their minds," he said.
The Union Minister said the numbers favoured the saffron party. “BJP had 17 per cent vote share in 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal and it came down to 10 per cent in 2016 Assembly polls in the state,” Shah told reporters during the press conference.
“In 2021 Assembly elections we had won 77 seats with 38 per cent votes. In the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2024 we had bagged 12 seats and vote share was 39 percent in the state. So, this consistency in term of winning seats in both parliamentary and assembly polls as well as growing vote share show that we will form government in Bengal next year,” Shah said.
When asked about the allegations of corruption charges brought against the Trinamool Congress government, he slammed Mamata saying, “Hard cash in crores of rupees have been recovered a minister’s house. Trinamool leaders like Partha Chatterjee, Anubrata Mondal, Jeebonkrishna Saha, Kunal Ghosh and others have been sent jails and how can one claim that there is no corruption in the state.”
Targeting Abhishek he alleged, “In Bengal, Bhaipo (Mamata’s nephew) has absolute monopoly to earn crores through cut-money. No other person has such rights of earning money.”
“Trinamool Government has ruined industries in the state,” he alleged saying, “Form BJP government in the state this time under the leadership of Modiji. You have voted Congress to power, CPI-M for 34 years and lastly Mamataji for 15 years in the state. Now, vote for us and we will build ‘sonar Bangla’ if BJP comes to power in Bengal,” he added.
Political observers felt that Shah’s allegations against Mamata Banerjee government on Bangladeshi infiltrations issue is significant amidst the ongoing Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal that has deleted more than 58 lakh dead, duplicate, permanently shifted voters from the voters’ list so far in the poll-bound state.