Abhishek rakes up Sitalkuchi firing, urges Rajbanshi community support
Telegraph | 2 April 2026
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday referred to the Sitalkuchi firing on the polling day in 2021 and tried to stoke the Rajbanshi sentiments to drum up support for his party as he campaigned in this part of the state.
“It was Amit Shah’s central forces who had indiscriminately fired in broad daylight on voters during the elections in 2021. Four persons had lost their lives in the firing,” Abhishek told a public meeting at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district.
The on-duty CISF personnel at the Jorepatki village of the Sitalkuchi Assembly segment opened fire on April 10, 2021, when a section of the voters turned violent and attacked a polling booth.
In the course of his speech, the second-in-command of Trinamool also tried to stoke the Rajbanshi sentiments as the community decides the results of almost half of the 54 Assembly seats of north Bengal. In 2021, the BJP had won most of the 54 seats.
He introduced Harihar Das, the Trinamool candidate of the Sitalkuchi seat, and said he was also the nominee of Ananta Maharaj aka Nagendra Roy.
“He is also the candidate of Ananta Maharaj….. we hope all of you will vote in large numbers and ensure his win. The BJP MLA who had won five years back has not done anything for you,u while the state government, even though we didn’t win here, did a lot for you,” said Abhishek.
Ananta, a Rajya Sabha member and head of a faction of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association, is perceived to have shifted his political alignment to Trinamool.
In return, Trinamool has fielded Harihar, one of his close associates.
Later in the day, as Abhishek spoke at a second rally in Ambari in the Rajganj Assembly constituency of Jalpaiguri district, he trained his guns at the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“We have fielded Swapna Barman, a Rajbanshi girl, from Rajganj, and the central government tried to prevent her from filing the nomination papers. This is unacceptable,” he said.
Swapna, who was a railway employee, had to face problems as the railways didn’t initially accept her resignation, as she joined Trinamool without resigning from her post. The authorities initiated disciplinary proceedings against her, and she moved to court, seeking judicial intervention.
Eventually, on Monday, she secured the no-objection certificate from the railways and launched her campaign on the same day.
“I am sharing our report card… detailed data of the social welfare schemes of each such constituency where I am attending public meetings. The BJP legislators should come and elaborate as to what the central government has done over the past 12 years,” he said.