Bengal will vote BJP to office next year with two-thirds majority: Shah
Times of India | 31 December 2025
Kolkata: Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday Bengal would get a BJP govt "after April 2026" and sought to allay the Matua community's fears over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He also asserted that infiltration would stop once BJP was voted to office in the state.
He expressed confidence that BJP would come to office with two-thirds majority.
"BJP has resolved that when it forms govt after April 15, 2026, it will restore Bengal's lost glory. Development has come to a halt in Bengal. Fear and corruption has become the identity of the state now… We will uproot Trinamool," Shah said during a 40-minute interaction with reporters in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Tracing his party's decadal growth in Bengal from 2 Lok Sabha seats and a mere 17% vote share to 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and 77 seats in the 2021 assembly polls, Shah said Congress and CPM had been reduced to zero and his party had emerged as the principal opposition force in the state.
"We had 36% vote share in the 2021 assembly polls and we will win the 2026 polls with two-thirds majority. I know that the next election will be fought on the issue of stopping infiltration and driving the infiltrators out," he said.
On Monday night, Shah spoke to Bongaon MP and junior Union minister Shantanu Thakur at length over fears among Matuas that the ongoing SIR would leave them disenfranchised. According to Bengal BJP sources, Shah assured Thakur that not a single Matua would lose his or her voting right or citizenship.
At the media interaction, Shah said, "Matuas have no reason to be afraid of and it is a promise of BJP. The refugees who came to Bengal are citizens of India and nobody can harm them. Not even Mamata Banerjee."
BJP netas said that of the nearly 1.5 crore Matuas in Bengal, only 70,000 have filed applications for citizenship under CAA.
Shah raked up the issue of infiltration once again and said stretches along the India-Bangladesh border are still unfenced because the state govt did not allot land to BSF.
"I have sent seven letters to the state govt, but they have not responded... What are police and the administration doing? Why don't they nab the infiltrators? Who is preparing forged documents for them? Infiltration is happening under the watch of Mamata Banerjee and that is changing the demography of the state. This is being done to strengthen her vote bank," he said.
Referring to allegations of corruption and scams in the state, Shah referred to Trinamool netas who had been arrested, naming Partha Chatterjee, Jyotipriya Mallick, Anubrata Mandal and Jiban Krishna Saha.
"Leaders like Firhad Hakim and Sovan Chattopadhyay are accused in scams. Yet Mamata Banerjee said there is no corruption in the state. But the people in the state have not closed their eyes to what is happening around them. Women's safety is at stake in Bengal. Women have been told not to step out after 7 pm. People are waiting to oust this useless govt," Shah said.
Urging people to give BJP a chance in next year's assembly polls, Shah said that while Trinamool is "doing politics" over mandir, an expelled Trinamool neta is doing politics over masjid. "People of Bengal should decide if the politics over mandir and masjid is correct before the polls. The core issues in the state are, however, women's safety, corruption, jobs for youth, and the flight of industries," he said.