Abhishek Banerjee on Friday demanded a socio-political boycott of the BJP in Bengal and appealed to the people to ensure that the party's tally stayed below 50 in the 294-seat Assembly.

The national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress was addressing a gathering at Esplanade in Calcutta, where his aunt and chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a dharna against large-scale deletions from the voter list.

Abhishek said there was enough cause to go past the 2021 slogan ("No Vote to BJP") by an anti-Sangh parivar civil society movement and isolate the BJP through a boycott.

“Before the 10 crore people of Bengal, we say today that the BJP must be boycotted... socially and politically," said the Diamond Harbour MP.

He said till the 60 lakh people with the dubious "under adjudication" status secured their voting rights, Mamata and her party would remain on the streets. “If 60 lakh citizens of India are "under adjudication", why shouldn't the Prime Minister’s chair also be under adjudication? This Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) was elected by the votes of an electorate that included these people,” said Abhishek.

Mamata did not deliver a speech, promising to do so on Saturday, and stayed put at the Metro Channel dharna site for the night. It was here that she had conducted her 2006 hunger strike during the Singur movement and the 2019 dharna to shield then Calcutta police commissioner, Rajeev Kumar (now poised to represent her party in the Rajya Sabha), from a CBI raid.

In brief addresses, she attacked the BJP and the poll panel repeatedly.

"Shameless, brazen BJP and their agent, the Election Commission... where can one hide this great shame!" said the chief minister.

From Trinamool-leaning civil society members to the party's senior and mid-level leadership were all present at the site, besides several thousand supporters.

Abhishek said: "(The BJP is) a party of venomous snakes, even one must not be left in your courtyard... they must be wiped out politically. Their number in the Assembly should be brought down to less than 50, 40 or 30.”

He alleged that the BJP was trying to manipulate electoral rolls through the poll panel to exercise a malicious, illegitimate influence on the outcome of the 2026 Assembly elections.

Abhishek tore into the contentious SIR exercise for having caused large-scale removals and uncertainty surrounding tens of lakhs of genuine electors.

"BJP leaders had been saying the same things for months, even before the process started. Not a coincidence,” he said.

“They assumed they could steal this election by illegally removing one crore names.... No matter what they throw at us, Mamata Banerjee is becoming the chief minister for the fourth consecutive term," he added, drawing parallels with India's struggle for Independence from the British colonisers, which Bengal led from the front. "We must fight this the way we fought the British."

Para-teachers' protest

Mamata briefly lost her cool when the dharna site was visited by 100-odd para-teachers from state-run and state-aided schools, demanding a hike in compensation and permanence in employment.

Their slogans visibly displeased the chief minister, who alleged they were sent by the BJP.

“If you can attend peacefully, stay. If not.... This is not a place for anybody to raise any demand. The only issue here is the SIR and the people's right to vote," she said.

"Don’t make personal demands here. Those trying political games while people are dying, I request them not to do so while people are dying... don’t do this at the BJP's behest,” said Mamata, as police escorted the para-teachers away to police vans. “Here for the media attention... you could have gone anywhere else. Go do this in front of Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, or Vanish (Gyanesh) Kumar."

Para-teacher Sujata Mondal told journalists: “Decades of service later, we can no longer survive on the ₹10,000-13,000 we are paid...."

"We came here to be heard by the chief minister," she said, adding that Mamata had promised them permanent jobs in 2011.

Kalyan's Gyanesh threat

Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee, speaking from the Mamata dais, caused a controversy by saying he would have cut chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's finger had he not occupied the constitutional post, because the retired IAS officer "behaved very badly" with the chief minister.

"(Kumar) behaved very badly with her. He dared to raise his finger... Had he not been the chief election commissioner, I would have cut off his finger that day (February 2)," he said.

Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, said the MP's remarks typified the Trinamool mindset.