The BJP has planned to put its best foot forward in establishing Mamata Banerjee's alleged connection to the recruitment scams, in the backdrop of Thursday's Supreme Court verdict, as the party believes the issue will have a profound impact on next year's Assembly elections.

The BJP has already lined up a series of protests starting April 7 in Calcutta and prepared a roadmap detailing how the party's rank and file will reach out to the people to explain the chief minister’s alleged connection to the scam.

The scam led to the dismissal of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching employees after the Supreme Court, with certain modifications, upheld the verdict passed by Calcutta High Court last year.

“This is not about just a few thousand teaching and non-teaching staff; 23 lakh youths who appeared for the 2016 School Service Commission exam were cheated by the Mamata Banerjee government. This verdict has validated our longstanding allegation that all recruitments by the state government are tainted by corruption,” said a senior BJP leader in Calcutta.

The BJP's youth wing, Yuva Morcha, will march to Kalighat (Mamata’s residence at 30-B Harish Chatterjee Street), demanding the chief minister’s resignation. The party has also planned a mega march in the city on April 13.

“After Poila Baisakh, our workers in districts will continue to hit the streets, where our appeal will be to remove this corrupt chief minister in the 2026 Assembly elections,” the leader said.

That the BJP’s prime target was Mamata was evident when the party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra and Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar, in a joint news conference in New Delhi, claimed that Mamata would join the list of arrested chief ministers, following Haryana’s Om Prakash Chautala, who was jailed in 2013 in a recruitment scam.

“Mamata Banerjee will be the second chief minister after Haryana’s Om Prakash Chautala to be arrested in a teachers' recruitment scam,” said Majumdar.

Chautala, one of the longest-serving chief ministers of Haryana, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2013 following a court verdict after being found guilty in a teachers' recruitment scam probed by the CBI. He was released in 2021 after he was granted a six-month remission.

BJP leaders said the party’s current focus is the Supreme Court hearing on April 8, regarding the creation of supernumerary posts of teachers by the Bengal cabinet headed by Mamata.

“If the Supreme Court orders a CBI probe, Mamata Banerjee won’t be able to escape as the cabinet meeting was chaired by her. If there is no CBI probe, we will campaign to ensure that her punishment is delivered by the BJP once we come to power in 2026,” said a BJP leader in Calcutta.

Patra said Mamata should offer financial support to those who lost their jobs, using Trinamool Congress funds.

“Those legitimate candidates who lost their jobs because of fraudulent recruitment by the Mamata Banerjee government should be compensated from the party’s funds and the chief minister’s relief fund,” said Patra.

"Mamata Banerjee should be arrested as she was the guide of Partha Chatterjee, former education minister arrested in this recruitment scam. We all know that Partha Chatterjee wrote the name of Mamata Banerjee in his arrest memo," Patra added before showing many photographs of Mamata and Partha.

A senior BJP leader said Patra’s appearance indicated that the party would take up the Bengal issue at the national level to corner the Mamata government.

While senior CPM leaders are busy deliberating at the party Congress in Tamil Nadu's Madurai, frontal organisations of the party — SFI and DYFI — are hitting the streets on the issue.

Police in Burdwan cracked down on an SFI-DYFI demonstration that demanded the resignation of Mamata over the loss of jobs to over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.

"The police are unable to arrest the corrupt Trinamool leaders, but are present in large numbers to arrest us. They brutally assaulted us and are trying to stop our protest," said SFI leader Anirban Roychowdhury as he was being dragged away by his collar from the demonstration site by a cop.

However, a source in the Trinamool Congress said after the verdict, Mamata clarified her stance toward those affected. She is scheduled to hold a meeting with the dismissed teaching and non-teaching staff at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday.

“BJP’s big talk will be silenced once Didi addresses the job losers on Monday. She will certainly propose something that benefits those affected,” said a TMC leader.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said the BJP leaders' efforts to politicise the verdict will not succeed as they were the ones responsible for depriving educated youths in Bengal of jobs.