Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress MP from Diamond Harbour and party’s national general secretary said the BJP will get less than 50 seats in the 2026 Assembly election in Bengal.
He was addressing a huge gathering at Srikrishnapur Boharanpur Football ground at Satgachia in his constituency this afternoon.
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He published a book titled Nishshabdo Biplab containing details of the work done in his constituency since 2014, when he became an MP for the first time.
“I am not a soothsayer or an astrologer but on the basis of ground reality I can say that the BJP will get below 50 seats in the 2026 Assembly election,” he said.
Coming down heavily on state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar he said: “When people demonstrated in front of his car in Budge Budge some days ago, he wrote to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and home minister Amit Shah and lodged a complaint. How many letters has he written to the Centre on Bengal’s deprivation,” he asked.
He said the duo Majumdar and Suvendu Adhikari have criticised the Jagannath temple at Digha and called it an amusement park and circus and thus humiliated Lord Jagannath. People will give them a befitting reply in the election.
He said Mr Adhikari is a complete failure as his party has failed to win a single by-election and got lesser seats in Lok Sabha election.
Calling the BJP anti national, he said: “It is unfortunate that Adhikari has compared between Mamata Banerjee government with that of Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh and his big brother the Centre has not said a word on the arrest of the terrorists who had killed 26 people in Pahalgam on 22April.”
Mr Banerjee said he had full faith in the people of Diamond Harbour and claimed that he will increase his margin in the 2029 Lok Sabha election. He said Sebashray camp will be opened later this year to serve people.
He said, “After being elected MP, I promised that Amtala would get a bus terminus. It happened. I said the Amtala Rural Hospital would be developed – our government did that too. For Muchisa Hospital, Rs 6 crore has been sanctioned and work has already started, soon to be completed.”
He added after the Pulwama attack in 2019, they called us anti-national. If someone speaks in Bengali, they are called Bangladeshi. If someone wears a turban, they are labelled Khalistani. What hatred! This divisive politics was never seen in Bengal. To please a few people from Gujarat and MP, some of Bengal’s unworthy sons have sold their spines.
He further added: “I said PoK is an integral part of India and must be taken back. Does any BJP leader have the courage to say this? Who are the anti-nationals? Who are Bangla-birodhi? Who are anti-development? Who are using ED and CBI when Bengal’s poor get pensions? Who stopped MGNREGA funds for Bengal? Who halted Awas Yojna benefits for 40 lakh poor families in Bengal? Who froze Rs 8,000 crore under the Grameen Sadak Yojana? It is because they faced a humiliating defeat in Bengal.”
They are taking revenge. But revenge politics cannot be done with people. It is the people who elect us. You tried so hard to defame Diamond Harbour by picking up one isolated incident. BJP leaders tried to politicise a dead body in Maheshtala‘s Rabindra Nagar. But the women chased them out so forcefully that they will think 10 times before returning. It was the common people who drove them out, said Abhishek.
The MP pointed out that Centre possesses so much money. They owe Bengal about Rs 50,000-60,000 crore only over the GST share. They are taking Rs 1.5 lakh crore from Bengal through GST and income taxes. They have never supported the people of Bengal. We have provided free medical treatment to about 12 lakh people, and for months, arranged for a month of free medicines to everyone who turned up. Nobody left with empty hands. We sent spectacles to the houses of 25,000 people. About 6,000-6,500 referral cases had come. Complicated cases like the cochlear implant…even if people came from outside Diamond Harbour – some came from Birbhum, Alipurduar, Ranaghat or Suri – we didn’t let anyone leave with empty hands, said the TMC leader.