West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee flags BJP-EC nexus, urges caution in Bhowanipore campaign
Telegraph | 24 March 2026
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday warned her party’s Bhabanipur leadership that nothing was in the ruling dispensation’s hands anymore, attacking the alleged BJP-poll panel nexus and its Bengal administrative overhaul.
She urged all stakeholders in the Trinamool Congress ecosystem to pull out all the stops to ensure her victory in Bhabanipur against the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari.
The Trinamool chairperson held a key closed-door meeting at Ahindra Mancha till 9pm with the poll managers of the Bhabanipur constituency that she has represented in the Assembly since becoming chief minister in 2011.
“Today, I want to warn you. Remember, we have nothing in our hands anymore... hope you all have seen that they removed 50-plus senior-most IAS-IPS officers. This ECI is merely a wing of the BJP. So exercise more caution than you have, and stay the course till the very, very end,” Mamata was quoted as saying in the meeting that comprised her party’s top-tier leadership and heads of the eight wards of Bhabanipur that she referred to as “mini-India”.
Nearly one out of every two Bhabanipur voters is a non-Bengali. The socio-economically diverse constituency has around 80 per cent non-Muslim voters, with Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains in large numbers. Punjabis, Gujaratis, Biharis, Marathis, Odias, Marwaris, people from Uttar Pradesh and south India make up a bulk of the populace.
“Never in my life have I changed my residence. I had asked my mother once, if I should. She had firmly said no. I stay here 365 days a year... before going out for campaigning across the state, I came here first to take Bhabanipur’s blessings,” she purportedly said. “Everyone knows I belong here and nowhere else. Every single person in every single household here knows me.”
In the September 2021 bypoll, Mamata had won Bhabanipur by a record margin of 58,832 votes, securing nearly 72 per cent of vote share. But the Bhabanipur worries for the 30B Harish Chatterjee Street resident are rooted in the summer of 2024, when the BJP drastically narrowed the gap with Trinamool in the Assembly segment, by over 50,000 votes in the Lok Sabha for Kolkata Dakshin, shrinking the lead to merely 8,297.
Booth-wise data reveals that the BJP led from 149 of the 269 booths in the Assembly segment, and from five of the eight wards. In the September 2021 bypoll, Mamata led in all eight.
The five wards the BJP led in 2024 are 63 (parts of Chowringhee, Taltala, Park Street, Shakespeare Sarani, the Maidan, and Hastings), 70 (Jadu Babu’s Bazaar), 71 (Bhowanipore), 72 (Chakraberia, Padmapukur, and Bakulbagan), and 74 (Alipore).
The three Trinamool-led wards are 73 (parts of Bhowanipore, Patuapara, and Kalighat), 77 (parts of Kidderpore), and 82 (Chetla).
Her nephew and Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — speaking before her on Sunday — demanded a lead of over 60,000 from Bhabanipur and asked the audience to ensure the highest lead out of all the 11 constituencies in core Calcutta. He warned against complacency and asked for multiple campaign visits to every household. He said he would gladly reach any corner of the constituency whenever needed, to help with the Bhabanipur-specific campaign. He asked the party to ensure that all eight wards were regained as well as 231 booths where Mamata had led in 2021, or even more, this time.
“Do not yield to provocation and maintain stern vigil, especially at the strongroom stage (when EVMs are stored after polling). Keep a cool head,” Mamata was quoted as saying. She repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, according to sources present.
Regarding the Bengal SIR, the “under adjudication” category and the supplementary lists, she said her party will stand by lakhs of genuine Indian citizens being “deliberately disenfranchised” by the saffron regime.
In the SIR, 47,094 names of voters, nearly one of four, were dropped in Bhabanipur. Another 14,155 are “under adjudication”.
“Don’t go home when voting is over. Load-sheddings could happen...,” said Mamata, referring to the alleged post-poll malpractice that resulted in her narrow defeat to Adhikari at Nandigram in 2021.
She raised the stakes in her signature style, saying: “(After Bhabnipur and Bengal) Our next step will be in Delhi’sdirection.”
Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya was derisive. “Porajiteyr artonaad (the yowl of the vanquished),” he said. “They won’t be able to do what they usually do in elections. They have figured out they are losing. This is a pep talk, a vocal tonic to inspire her party, but won’t make any real difference,” he added. “Ghor omaboshya (intense darkness) about to descendon her.”