Friday, 09 January 2026
Friday, 09 January 2026
Mamata Banerjee will hit the streets on Friday afternoon against the BJP’s “blatant misuse of central agencies” and “assault on democracy.”
At 2 pm on Friday Mamata will lead a rally from Jadavpur’s 8B bus stand to the Hazra crossing at her home turf in Bhowanipore.
Friday’s rally will be a culmination of the barrage of protests that started after teams from the enforcement directorate raided the office of I-PAC and the home of its chief Pratik Jain in the wee hours of Thursday.
The Trinamool accused the BJP and the central probe agency of working according to a “script.”
While addressing the media from the I-PAC office where she had spent close to 45 hours on Thursday afternoon, Mamata had announced a protest march in all the municipal wards in urban and semi-urban areas and blocks across the state.
Following the call, Trinamool workers were seen on the streets in large numbers. In Kolkata, party members marched from Surendra Nath College and along Bentick Street, raising slogans against the BJP and central agencies.
In Birbhum’s Nanoor block, a protest march and roadshow were organised at Basapara, with leaders alleging a “despicable plot” to seize Trinamool documents through ED and CBI action.
In South 24 Parganas, a huge procession was taken out in the Hatishala area of Bhangarh under the leadership of Canning East MLA Shawkat Mollah, with slogans raised against the BJP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Separate marches were organised in Ghatakpukur under Ahsan Mollah and Baharul Islam. In Baruipur East, MLA Bibhas Sardar led a rally in the Fultala area, demanding Shah’s resignation.
Hooghly district witnessed protests in multiple locations. A large procession was taken out from Baidyabati to Serampur under Chapdani MLA Arindam Guin, while Trinamool workers burned tyres on the Baidyabati–Tarakeshwar road in Singur.
Marches were also organised in Arambagh, Haripal and Tarakeshwar, with senior leader Anubrata Mandal joining demonstrations in Birbhum.
In West Midnapore, a protest march in Ghatal town concluded at Ghari More. In Murshidabad, Berhampur Municipality mayor Nadugopal Mukherjee led a rally along the city’s main road.
Trinamool Congress units also staged protests in Jalpaiguri and other parts of North Bengal.
The Trinamool leadership maintained that the BJP, unable to counter the party politically, was using central agencies to target I-PAC and the Trinamool IT cell in a bid to intimidate the ruling party ahead of key political battles.
The fresh political flashpoint stems from searches carried out by the Enforcement Directorate at the office and residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain as part of a money-laundering investigation linked to an alleged multi-crore coal pilferage scam. The search went on for nearly 12 hours.
The ED and Indian Political Action Committee have since moved the Calcutta High Court, with the agency alleging interference in its probe and I-PAC challenging the legality of the searches. Justice Suvra Ghosh is expected to hear the matter on Friday.
The issue escalated after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appeared at Jain’s south Kolkata residence and the I-PAC office in Salt Lake during the raid, accusing the ED of attempting to seize the Trinamool Congress’s internal documents, hard disks and sensitive election-related data.
The ED, in turn, alleged that Banerjee and her aides removed key physical and electronic evidence, a charge denied by the ruling party.
