Reality has turned out differently: Mamata targets BJP after SC directive on voter rolls
The Statesman | 19 April 2026
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, welcoming the Supreme Court’s position on ensuring the right to vote of ‘excluded’ voters who are cleared by adjudication tribunals, on Friday hit out at the BJP over the issue. “Manush bhabe ek, hoy areak” (people think one thing, but reality turns out differently), she said at an election rally in Cooch Behar.
Miss Banerjee framed the tribunal’s decision as a turning point in the ongoing electoral process. She said that nearly 2.7 million “under consideration” and “under adjudication” individuals would now be included in the voters’ list in accordance with the tribunal’s directive, even up to two days before polling. Calling it a restoration of democratic rights, she instructed party workers to reach out to these voters directly and ensure that voter slips are delivered to their homes.
Miss Banerjee alleged that there had been a deliberate attempt to exclude large sections of voters from the rolls in order to influence the outcome of the election. “They thought they could capture power by striking off names from the voters’ list and using brute force,” she said, adding that the court’s intervention had altered that equation. “Now that these people have regained their voting rights, we must stand by them.”
Focusing on Cooch Behar, she claimed that nearly 2.5 lakh names had been deleted from the electoral rolls, accusing the BJP of lacking the capacity to win elections through public support and instead relying on coercive tactics and the deployment of forces from outside the state. “I have never seen such an election in my life,” she remarked, describing the current political climate as unprecedented and branding the BJP as an “anti-Bengal force” pursuing a “destructive politics.”
Framing the polls as a battle for identity and survival, Miss Banerjee appealed to voters to back her party if they wished to prevent any division of Bengal or fragmentation of districts like Cooch Behar. She also took aim at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, accusing him of sending NRC notices to residents of the region earlier and then returning to seek votes. “There is no shame in this,” she said.
Projecting confidence ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, Miss Banerjee asserted that the Trinamul Congress would retain power in the state and warned that her party was equally determined to unseat the BJP at the Centre.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said she had seen many Prime Ministers during her tenure as an MP but “never such a Prime Minister,” while also making veiled references to the Central leadership and alleging misuse of agencies like the CBI, which she described as a “caged parrot.”
She further accused the Centre of sidelining the state police and conducting elections through central forces armed with weapons. “In a democracy, the ballot ~ not the bullet ~ is the final word,” she said, reiterating concerns over alleged electoral manipulation.
Responding to recent remarks by the Prime Minister in Siliguri regarding development disparities, Miss Banerjee claimed that ₹1.72 lakh crore had been spent on North Bengal’s development and cautioned him against making uninformed statements. She then posed three pointed questions to the Prime Minister ~ on the promise of creating two crore jobs annually, depositing ₹15 lakh in citizens’ bank accounts, and bringing back black money from abroad ~ asking whether any of these commitments had been fulfilled.
Miss Banerjee also accused the BJP of being disconnected from Bengal’s cultural ethos, citing instances of alleged mispronunciation of names of iconic figures such as Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as evidence of a deeper disconnect.
In a cautionary note to her party cadre, she warned of possible last-minute raids, attempts to influence polling agents with money, and efforts to trigger re-polling in strongholds of the Trinamul Congress. She urged vigilance in checking EVMs and VVPATs, hinting at concerns over possible manipulation.
Miss Banerjee said political tensions before elections are temporary and accused her opponents of opportunism, asserting that the people of Bengal would ultimately deliver their verdict through the ballot.