Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched a multi-pronged attack on the TMC, seeking to weave together disparate strands of discontent in West Bengal—from the Darjeeling hills to the industrial belt of Kulti and the agrarian stretches of East Midnapore—into a single narrative of “change”.
Addressing four rallies across north and south Bengal on the final day of campaigning for the first phase of Assembly polls, he accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of shielding infiltrators, promoting dynastic politics, and presiding over corruption, fear, and joblessness.
The sharpest political message came from Kurseong in Darjeeling district, where Shah sought to strike an emotional chord with the politically crucial hill electorate by promising to resolve the decades-old Gorkha issue within six months if the BJP came to power.
“Within six months of the BJP forming the government in West Bengal, every Gorkha will have a smile on his face. We will find such a solution to the Gorkha issue that Gorkhas can live in peace,” he said.
Though Shah did not explicitly mention “Gorkhaland” or “statehood”, the assurance reiterated the BJP’s long-standing promise of a “permanent political solution” for the hills—an issue that has shaped Darjeeling’s politics for decades.
The BJP has retained the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat since 2009, largely on the strength of this promise, even as it has stopped short of openly backing a separate state, mindful of the potential backlash in south Bengal.
Seeking to put the TMC on the defensive, Shah said that after becoming Union home minister he had convened three meetings on the issue, but “not even once” did a representative of Mamata Banerjee attend.
“Mamata Didi, we are not dependent on you for a solution to the Gorkha issue. We have appointed an interlocutor who is preparing a report by engaging with Gorkha organisations here and officials of the West Bengal government,” he added.
He also promised that names of Gorkhas allegedly deleted during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls would be restored, and that “false cases” against Gorkha activists would be withdrawn before July 31 if the BJP formed the government.
From the hills, Shah moved to the industrial belt of Kulti in Paschim Bardhaman, where he combined the BJP’s campaign against “infiltration” with promises of jobs and industrial revival.
Calling the election an opportunity to make Bengal “infiltrator-free”, he alleged that the TMC had “stolen” jobs from deserving youths and “sold” them to the undeserving.
“The BJP promises merit-based employment to one lakh youths in Bengal every year,” he said, pledging to revive Kulti’s industrial base, curb illegal mining, and check pollution from sponge iron factories.
Shah also sharpened his attack on what the BJP terms “bhaipo culture”, repeatedly targeting Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“Didi’s dream of putting her nephew in the chief minister’s chair will never be fulfilled,” he said at Kulti, before escalating the attack at Salboni in Paschim Medinipur.
At Salboni, Shah framed the election as a fight to “free Bengal from infiltrators, corruption and fear” and sought to reassure voters amid the BJP’s delay in naming a chief ministerial candidate.
“I assure you that the next chief minister of Bengal will be from the BJP, born and brought up in Bengal, and he will speak Bengali. Certainly, he will not be ‘bhaipo’. He will be a BJP worker,” he said.
Shah also invoked the Ram temple issue and accused Mamata Banerjee of backing attempts to build a “Babri Masjid” in Bengal through suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir.
“Mamata Didi wants her associate Humayun Kabir to build a Babri Masjid in Bengal. Didi, listen carefully. Bengal is in India. We will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built in Bengal,” he said.
The remarks are likely to sharpen the communal pitch of the campaign in a state where the BJP has consistently foregrounded issues such as infiltration, minority appeasement, and the Ram temple, while the TMC has accused the party of attempting to polarise voters.
Shah also promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Bengal, claiming it would end the practice of “four marriages” among “some people”, and projected the BJP as a guarantor of women’s safety in the wake of incidents such as Sandeshkhali and RG Kar.
“Mamata Didi says that after 7 pm, mothers and sisters should not step out of their homes. But after May 5, if a girl goes out on a scooter even at 1 am, no thug will dare raise his eyes at her,” he said.
At his final rally in Chandipur in Purba Medinipur, bordering Suvendu Adhikari’s Nandigram bastion, Shah mixed confidence with a warning.
With 2,450 companies of CAPF deployed for the polls, he urged voters to cast their ballots without fear and warned “TMC goons” they would have “no place to hide” after May 4.
“No one can threaten our voters. Central forces are in every nook and corner of Bengal,” he said.
He also promised that infiltrators would be identified and deported, and that the Bangladesh border would be sealed within 45 days if the BJP came to power.
Shah added that a research centre would be set up in Chandipur to study the medicinal properties of betel leaf.