Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee paraded two men and a woman, marked as dead voters in the draft electoral rolls, as the ruling party launched the campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls on Friday.
“These three people have been marked dead by the Election Commission in the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls,” Abhishek told a gathering at the Rano Sankalpa Sabha in South 24-Parganas Baruipur, Friday.
The three voters --- Manirul Molla and Maya Das from Metiabruz and Harekrishna Giri of Kakdwip – appeared on the dais in the middle of his speech.
Abhishek Banerjee at the Rano Sankalpa Sabha in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas on 2 January, 2026. (Sourced by The Telegraph)
“These three people who are with me here are not the only ones to have been marked dead by the commission after the SIR. There are 24 such voters in South 24-Parganas. This is their conspiracy. They want to deny the people of Bengal the right to cast their votes,” Abhishek said.
About 420 kms away, Bengal’s leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was in Malda’s Chanchal spearheading the BJP’s poriborton sankalpa sabha, where he too raked the SIR issue.
“They (Trinamool) are opposing SIR because they will not get the votes of Rohingyas and Bangladeshi infiltrators. The final voter list in Bengal will be free from Rohingyas and Bangladeshi infiltrators,” Suvendu said in his speech on Friday. “1.25 crore fake job cards have been issued to Bangladeshi infiltrators. They take away your jobs, the money that should have been yours.”
Abhishek Banerjee (left), Suvendu Adhikari (PTI)
The leader of Opposition could address the public at Chanchal’s Kalambagan following the intervention of the Calcutta High Court, which gave permission based on conditions like wrapping up the meeting by 3pm.
The names attributed to the two public meetings and the substance of the speeches made by the two rival leaders in Bengal’s bi-polar electoral politics, appeared to set the theme for this summer’s Assembly polls—BJP’s pledge for change and Trinamool's for war (to retain Bengal).
The sanitisation of the electoral rolls through the SIR has been a contentious issue in national politics and most of the opposition parties, including the Trinamool, have been vocal against it.
The other theme that dominated both the speeches was the alleged funds freeze by the Narendra Modi government on centrally-sponsored schemes in the state and the counter-alleged embezzlement by the ruling party in the state.
“They have deprived Bengal of funds. They do not want the people of Bengal to vote. That is why we call them anti-Bengal,” Abhishek explained.
Suvendu, who had ended his speech in Chanchal before Abhishek took the dais in Baruipur, told the crowd: “Between 2014-22 the Narendra Modi government released Rs. 30,000 crores for housing projects for the poor. That money went to the Bangladeshi infiltrators.”
Suvendu also rolled out promises for the voters like 200 days work in a year under the rural employment guarantee scheme, more funds for housing, health insurance and others.
“This double engine government in Madhya Pradesh cannot even provide safe drinking water to its people… their own booth level leaders from Malda and North Dinajpur were arrested by the Bhiwandi police for speaking in Bengali. The BJP leaders in Bengal cannot even protect its own people,” Abhishek claimed.
From Saturday, Abhishek will be travelling across the districts starting from Alipurduar. In the first week of January Abhishek will be in Malda.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee are likely to address public meetings in Malda for their respective parties later in January. The dates and venues are yet to be announced.
Since 2019 onwards, BJP has grown in the north Bengal districts. The Trinamool recovered some lost ground in the 2021 Assembly polls in the region. Malda is a rare district where both the Lok Sabha seats are held by the opposition parties.
