Abhishek pitches for all 31 seats from South 24-Parganas at rally
The Statesman | 3 January 2026
Trinamul Congress national general secretary and the party’s MP from Diamond Harbour Abhishek Banerjee urged party workers to ensure the victory for all the 31 candidates by 50,000 votes each in the forthcoming Assembly election in South 24-Parganas.
He reiterated that Trinamul Congress will get more seats in the 2026 Assembly election. “In 2021, we got 214 seats, in 2026 it will go up by at least one seat. The vote in 2026 will be an election to teach the BJP the hardest lesson.”
He was addressing a rally at Baruipur this afternoon. He initiated the month-long visit to the districts to campaign with the slogan “Jotoi Koro Hamla, Abar Jitbe Bangla.”
Mr Banerjee said he would visit Alipurduar in north Bengal tomorrow. On 6 January, he will go to Birbhum. This will be followed by South and North Dinajpur on 7 January. Again on 8 January, he will visit Malda. He will be touring the districts throughout January.
“I shall go to the districts, when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process is on, to stand by the people who are being harassed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).”
Mr Banerjee presented three persons, who had been declared “dead” by the ECI. “They are alive but the ECI has declared them as ghosts. There are 24 persons in South 24-Parganas who have been declared as dead.”
He said he started ‘Joto Koro Hamla, Abar Jitbe Bangla’ campaign from South 24-Parganas because the party had won the zilla parishad in 2008 panchayat election. “We will start my campaign programme with the blessings and best wishes of the people of South 24-Parganas,” he said.
He said the people of Bengal will never forgive the BJP as it has stopped the dues of the poor people and in the name of SIR forced people to stand in queues. “In 2016, they forced you to stand in long queues in the name of note ban. Now, they are forcing you to stand in long queues in the name of SIR. You should stand in queues on the day of election to teach the BJP the hardest lesson of life.”
He said the “Bangla birodhi zamindars” have humiliated the Bengalis and termed them as Bangladeshis just to malign them. “They forget one thing. If you ever hit Trinamul Congress, it will intensify its strength.”
He said the BJP has 12 MPs and none of them has ever written a letter to the Centre urging it to clear the dues worth Rs 2 lakh crore. “The Union home minister during his visit to the city had said the BJP would make sonar Bangla if voted to power. Why are they not making sonar Assam, sonar Bihar?” he asked.
He urged party workers to pump in maximum effort to defeat the anti-people, anti-national BJP. “Pull up your socks and ensure victory to the candidates so that we can serve Ma Mati Manus in better ways.”
In an aggressive stance, Abhishek said: “When I asked Gyanesh Kumar how many Bangladeshis and Rohingyas were removed from the electoral rolls, he started pointing fingers at me. I told him to put his finger down, he is nominated and I am elected.”
He added: “This time I went to Delhi, next time Mamata Banerjee will go. Then what will you do? This election is not just to defeat them but to teach these Bangla-Birodhis a lesson.”