Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday branded the Narendra Modi government’s delimitation Bill an attempt to fragment India, hours before the proposed constitutional amendment was defeated on the floor of the Lok Sabha.

“Do what you will, you will not remain in power... it takes only a second. One may think certain things and make every plan, but something very different befalls. The bell of justice will get swayed even by the wind, sooner or later,” she said at a rally in Cooch Behar in the afternoon, tearing into the Modi government for its desperate attempt to push the legislation through the Lok Sabha.

The Bill, which required a two-thirds majority of 352 ayes to clear the floor, garnered only 298 votes in favour against 230 nays, leaving the BJP’s gerrymandering plans in tatters.

“BJP is trying to raise the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to 850-odd... because they know they cannot win (again) otherwise. That will shatter the country into fragments,” said Mamata, underscoring that the move was far from administrative, as it was an existential threat to the nation.

The Trinamool Congress chairperson, drawing on her decades of experience as a parliamentarian, was quick to flag the “illegality” of the process.

“As a former MP, I know that without a two-thirds majority, a Constitution amendment bill cannot be passed.... I am told by my MPs that that is what this Centre is trying to do. We will fight it tooth and nail.”

Bengal, along with southern states, stands to lose out in terms of national importance by way of the share of seats in the Lok Sabha, if the Modi government is able to proceed with its plan. As all these states did well in population control compared to the bovine belt, their proportionate share in the Lower House of Parliament would
have declined.

The chief minister said she had no objection to the women’s reservation part of the endeavour, which she accused the BJP of hiding behind to get the delimitation Bill passed. “They want to break the nation down to small pieces, tiny fragments... tukro, tukro, tukro, tukro (piece, piece, piece, piece),” she said. “They will make our nation unrecognisable.... Taking away everything we hold dear and cherish.”

Mamata went on: “After winning Bengal, we will bring down their government in Delhi.”

On Thursday, the chief minister had said she was in constant contact with DMK’s M.K. Stalin, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena-UBT’s Uddhav Thackeray and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.

On Friday, Trinamool sources said JMM’s Hemant Soren and his wife would campaign for Mamata in four Jungle Mahal districts.

At the Cooch Behar rally, the Trinamool chief accused the BJP of misusing central agencies, instead of fighting her politically, claiming that her party offices and candidates’ residences were being raided out of political vendetta. She alleged that the NRC was being introduced under the guise of the opaque, exclusionary SIR, as a means to label genuine Indian citizens, legitimate residents of Bengal, as “infiltrators”.

“You are a party of cowards,” she told the BJP, vowing to take it down.