BJP directs Kejri Bhaiya-slayer at Didi, Delhi CM Rekha Gupta joins saffron's mobilisation drive
Telegraph | 23 February 2026
The BJP fielded its only female chief minister, Delhi’s Rekha Gupta, to energise its women’s wing in poll-bound Bengal in an attempt to make inroads into Mamata Banerjee’s arguably most loyal vote bank.
At her maiden meeting with BJP women workers in Calcutta — a programme that is supposed to be followed by similar events in other places in Bengal — Gupta took a dig at Mamata Banerjee, comparing her with former Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal.
“There was a Bhaiya (brother, meant to indicate Kejriwal) in Delhi whom I ousted. Now it is Didi’s turn,” Gupta told BJP women workers at the Science City auditorium during a daylong programme aimed at shaping the BJP’s campaign strategy on women’s safety by highlighting alleged atrocities against Bengal’s women in a government run by a woman.
“There are many similarities between Bhaiya and Didi. He did not allow central government schemes like Ayushman Bharat, and here Didi has followed the same path. The Bhaiya of Delhi focused on self-promotion; here too, the chief minister does the same,” Gupta said.
Multiple BJP sources said the decision to pitch Gupta in Bengal assumed significance as she is a woman chief minister who defeated the AAP in Delhi.
“Projecting Rekha Gupta, a woman chief minister, to mobilise women voters in Bengal can work better than deploying other women leaders of the BJP,” said a BJP leader.
Since she assumed power in 2011, women voters are believed to be Mamata’s strong support base. In her three terms, she has launched multiple schemes, from Kanyashree to Rupashree to Lakshmir Bhandar to woo girls and women.
The flagship Lakshmir Bhandar, launched in 2021, is believed by many to have helped consolidate women’s vote in favour of Trinamool in its third term. Ahead of the 2026 elections, Mamata once again hiked the existing Lakshmir Bhandar monthly stipend by ₹500 in a bid to win the hearts of women voters.
“If we want to come to power in Bengal, we have to somehow break Mamata Banerjee’s hegemony over women voters. We found that even if male members of a family voted for the BJP, its women vote for Trinamool. As women constitute almost half of the electorate, the BJP needs their votes to win,” a BJP source said.
Gupta announced that she would continue visiting Bengal to energise the women’s wing.
“I will continue coming here regularly to support you. You, the women’s force, must rise in the form of Durga and fight the devils in the state with a trishul to make the BJP win,” said the Delhi chief minister.
State BJP Mahila Morcha chief Phalguni Patra said that events such as Shakti Swarupa Nari Samabesh would be organised in other regions of Bengal ahead of the polls, which Gupta would attend.
“We have the Parivartan Yatra ahead, and after this programme, similar events will be organised in other divisions of the state. Rekha Gupta ji has assured us that she will visit us whenever we require her leadership,” Patra said.
Gupta also referred to the RG Kar brutality and growing incidents of atrocities against women in Bengal, urging women to give the final push to unseat Didi just as she had done with her ‘Bhaiya’ Kejriwal.
She also criticised Mamata for appearing in the Supreme Court, claiming that she went there to advocate for infiltrators instead of fighting crimes against women.
Trinamool counter
The Trinamool Congress did not delay in attacking Gupta, highlighting issues of law and order, air pollution, lack of women’s safety and incidents of rape and murder in the national capital.
“When @gupta_rekha jets into Bengal to lecture us on crime and law and order, everything in her own state, where she is constitutionally sworn to serve, must be “changa si,” right? Hardly,” Trinamool wrote in its official X handle.
“Last time we checked, a deadly terrorist blast had just ripped through the national capital, claiming 15 innocent lives. AQI had smashed record highs, choking the city in toxic smog. More than 500 women and girls vanished in just 15 days. Rape has become the grotesque new normal. And as recently as yesterday, a 35-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter were brutally murdered, their bodies stuffed into a bed box at their Sarita Vihar home like discarded trash. Clearly, your Home Minister Sahib isn’t doing his job. Neither are you,” it added.