Abhishek Banerjee maintained the BJP government was intimidating opposition parties.(FILE)
Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday asserted that more “intimidatory tactics” that the BJP uses against West Bengal's ruling party, the more number of seats it will get in the 2026 assembly polls, as people will resist the BJP's “gameplan”.
Mr Banerjee, while addressing a rally at Chopra in Uttar Dinajpur district, claimed that the Trinamool Congress will win not less than 240 seats in the next assembly elections.
He also maintained the BJP government at the Centre was intimidating opposition parties through frequent CBI and ED raids.
"From 184 seats in 2011 assembly polls, we got 211 seats in 2016. It went up to 213 seats in the 2021 elections. And keep in mind, TMC will not get less than 240 seats in the 2026 polls. The more the BJP's conspiracy against us grows using its agencies, the more our seats will go up, with people resisting their gameplan," he said.
Mr Banerjee recalled that during the 2021 polls, people had ignored the repeated visits by BJP leaders to Bengal and their “audacious display of power", to vote the TMC to power for the third time.
"We will not cower due to their (BJP's) threats unlike other parties. We will hit the streets with more protests," he said.
Mr Banerjee also accused the BJP of withholding the release of Rs 7,500-crore dues to the state, and said he will lead TMC activists to Delhi next month for an “indefinite sit-in to force the Centre to take note of the woes of the people of Bengal”.
He said in stark contrast to the Centre's “step-motherly” treatment to Bengal, the state government has spent Rs 3,500 crore under the rural roads housing project, irrespective of whether a region had elected TMC representatives to power in the last panchayat polls.
"We produce our report card before the people where every electoral promise from ‘Lakshmir Bhandar, ‘Swastha Saathi', ‘Aikashree' to Students Credit Card is accounted for. Can the BJP MPs, MLAs and panchayat members show such a report card? I challenge them. They only know to discriminate," the TMC national general secretary said.
The Diamond Harbour MP also claimed that while the state government is providing Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 to women under the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar' scheme, the Narendra Modi government is “extracting Rs 1,000” from citizens for linking Aadhaar with PAN.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)