Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the BJP of perpetrating a scam to win the Bihar elections and also claimed that in its bid to win the 2026 West Bengal elections, the saffron party would end up losing Gujarat.
The BJP has ruled Gujarat continuously since 1990 and returned to power in the 2022 state elections by winning 156 of the 182 seats in the state assembly.
“I am making this prediction… BJP will be defeated in Gujarat (Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state). To win Bengal, they will lose Gujarat,” Banerjee said during a protest march in North 24 Parganas, according to NDTV.
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Banerjee herself has led three successful election campaigns against the BJP in West Bengal – in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 assembly elections. But this time, the BJP will be more confident after big wins in Delhi and Bihar.
She also questioned the reason why a special intensive review (SIR) of the electoral rolls was carried out at short notice.
“Why is SIR being done in such a hurry? Why is SIR being done before elections? Take three years and we will help you…” the publication quoted the Bengal CM as saying.
Banerjee even referred to the Election Commission as a ‘BJP commission’ and said, “It takes 3 years to conduct SIR. The last time it was done was in 2002. We were never against SIR, but we said that no genuine voters can be wiped out, those who are beneficiaries of various government commissions…BJP is correcting the list from its party office and EC” will remain impartial as BJP’s job impartial. according to today’s India.
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“If you target me in Bengal and I take any attack on my people as a personal attack, then I will shake the entire nation. After the elections, I will tour the entire nation,” the publication also quoted her as saying.
Banerjee’s helicopter fiasco
Banerjee also accused the BJP of being involved in the cancellation of the helicopter flight that was supposed to take her to Bongaon on Tuesday morning.
After being informed at 10 am that the helicopter would not fly, the West Bengal CM had to travel by road. She arrived in Bongaon at 2 pm even though her speech was scheduled for 12:30 pm.
Bongaon is about 104 km from Kolkata.
“I haven’t traveled by helicopter for the last seven-eight months. I had planned to come here today and then go to Thakurnagar. Everything was pre-booked. But at 10 in the morning, the news came that the helicopter wouldn’t fly!” Banerjee told the rally.
Banerjee then claimed that the discomfort helped her connect more with people.
“They started creating hurdles before the elections. But it didn’t help them. In fact, it helped me. I met so many people along the way. It became a big public outreach,” Banerjee said, according to PTI.
“Don’t try to play with me. You won’t be able to fight with me and defeat me politically,” said a top TMC leader in an apparent allusion to the BJP.
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She insisted that she mostly traveled by road and was not dependent on the helicopter.
Banerjee’s rally comes in the wake of 35 deaths from across Bengal linked to SIR-induced fear and anxiety. Some of these deaths were reported to be suicides.
The Bengal CM accused both the BJP and the Election Commission of creating an atmosphere of fear in the country by using the SIR process. She insisted that West Bengal could resist attempts to “steal” the rights of citizens.
Why couldn’t the helicopter fly?
The Bengal CM’s helicopter flight had to be canceled as it was found that the aircraft in question was operating with an expired license, PTI reported.
A show cause notice was also issued to the helicopter operator.
The CM helicopter had not been used for six months and had a mandatory test on Monday.
“The license expiry should have been flagged immediately. Allowing a test flight without document verification is unacceptable. However, the expiry of the license was not reported during the check. The issue came to light early on Tuesday,” an official told PTI.
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“This kind of carelessness cannot be tolerated, especially in matters related to the VVIP movement. She (CM) has asked for a full explanation,” said an official from the chief minister’s office.
An inquiry has also been launched to find out how the oversight occurred and why no action was taken before the CM’s scheduled trip.
