The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday vowed to defeat chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur on a day the BJP took out a rally in Calcutta against the October 6 mob attack on party MP Khagen Murmu.

His statement came a day after Mamata, also the Trinamool Congress chairperson and the MLA of Bhabanipur, alleged that her constituency was being filled with outsiders in a planned manner.

“The BJP will defeat her (Mamata) in Bhabanipur (in the 2026 Assembly polls). I defeated you in Nandigram, and now the BJP will defeat you in Bhabanipur. We will defeat her by 20,000 votes,” said Adhikari.

Adhikari, a Trinamool turncoat, had defeated Mamata by a slim margin — less than 2,000 votes — in the 2021 Assembly polls from Nandigram.

“After the SIR (the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Bengal), we will ensure her defeat. We will make you a former chief minister.... Out of eight wards in Bhabanipur, the BJP got the lead in five wards (in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections),” added the Nandigram MLA.

Mamata on Tuesday sent an audio message from north Bengal for a Trinamool Congress–organised Vijaya Dashami get-together in her seat, in which she said: “Bhabanipur is being filled with the bohiragoto (outsiders), being done by planning.”

In the BJP, there is a buzz that Adhikari can contest from Bhabanipur as the top central leadership has trust in him since he defeated her in Nandigram.

However, Adhikari on Wednesday told reporters that whoever becomes the BJP candidate from Bhabanipur will defeat Mamata.

Senior BJP leaders, including Sukanta Majumdar and Adhikari, along with hundreds of tribal people from different districts armed with their traditional weapons, took out a march in Calcutta on Wednesday to protest against the attack on BJP MP Khagen Murmu in Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri.

Murmu, along with BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh, was brutally attacked by alleged Trinamool-sponsored goons in Nagrakata when they were visiting the flood-affected areas.

The party plans to take up the issue to send a message to the tribal community that the Trinamool is “against the tribals”. Murmu is a tribal legislator.

Leaders claimed they would launch protests across the state to woo tribal voters ahead of next year’s Assembly polls.

“Do you want to take revenge for the blood of Khagen Murmu? If so, you have to bring a change in 2026,” said Adhikari.