Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday mounted a scathing offensive on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Saturday address to the nation regarding the failure of the women’s reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, calling out his “hypocrisy” and dismissed the outreach as “cowardly” theatrics intended to mask the BJP’s poll fears.

She insisted that the saffron defeat on the Lok Sabha floor signalled the beginning of the end for the BJP’s hegemony at the Centre.

The chief minister characterised the Prime Minister’s address as a desperate attempt to manipulate the electoral landscape by misusing his position and infrastructure funded by taxpayers’ money, and of weaponising the state apparatus to circumvent parliamentary scrutiny.

“What you did yesterday was cowardly, hypocritical and fork-tongued. You can feel power slipping through your fingers, and you are prepared to go to any extent to hold on for just a little while longer,” she thundered in an X post in the afternoon.

She reserved her sharpest criticism for linking the women’s reservation bill with plans for a mega delimitation exercise that allegedly seeks to keep the BJP in power
nationally.

“Shamney mohila, pechhoney moyla (Women in front, to cover up the filth at the back),” she said at Tarakeswar in Hooghly.

“What we are fundamentally opposed to is the altering of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution, the division of this nation and the usurpation of power through gerrymandering, by redrawing political contours to hand greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others. This is an assault on federal democracy, and we will not watch it happen in silence,” Mamata asserted, arguing that the Prime Minister’s decision to address the nation via state-run Doordarshan rather than in Parliament exposed a fundamental aversion to accountability.

“In the Lok Sabha, 37.9 per cent of our elected members are women. In the Rajya Sabha, 46 per cent of our members are women. The question of our opposing women’s reservation does not arise, and never has,” she said.

Mamata said central agencies had begun targeting her circles, including individuals responsible for her security. She framed the harassment as a proxy for a direct attempt on her life. “You are trying to murder me. Tell me where do you want to assassinate me? I will stand alone.... If you have the guts, fire at me. But I will not bow down. I know how to answer threats,” she said.

“Defeated in the Lok Sabha, (Modi is) going about weeping now. Such a spectacular defeat it was... their fall has begun. They will be gone from the Centre in 2026 itself,” she claimed.