Suvendu Adhikari said on Friday that a Sandeshkhali-kind of incident would have happened if Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials had attempted to stop chief minister Mamata Banerjee from taking away files from the residence and office of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain on Thursday.

“If ED officials had resisted Mamata, they would have been attacked. Many could have been injured, similar to what happened in Sandeshkhali, and they would have had to be hospitalised,” the leader of the Opposition said in front of the Bengal Assembly.

“I think the ED took the right decision by not stopping her. They acted with intelligence,” Adhikari added.

He was referring to the incident in Sandeshkhali on January 5, 2024, where a group of ED officials had been assaulted by armed goons during a raid on the house of Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with an alleged public distribution system scam. Multiple ED officials were injured in the attack.

Since Mamata took away several files during the ED operation from Jain's office on Thursday, a key question arose over how the central agency, despite being accompanied by paramilitary forces, had failed to stop her.

Several BJP leaders said the ED’s inability to prevent the chief minister from taking away the files had created a negative perception among the public.

“Though it may have been impossible to stop a chief minister, the ED could have at least attempted in public to protect the files. We don't know what happened inside. If they had videography of the entire episode since Mamata Banerjee entered the investigation spot, they may release it to expose everything. The way the chief minister walked out with the files made it appear that the ED allowed her to do so,” said a BJP leader.

BJP MLA Ashok Dinda said he had expected “better” action from the ED officials.

Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty said the ED’s failure to seize the documents from Mamata was a significant political setback for the BJP.

“Party workers have always welcomed Mamata with an image that goes beyond legal arguments. The entire episode presented an optics where Mamata Banerjee seemed victorious. It is a fact that the ED’s failure to secure the files became a political failure for the BJP, as politics is largely about perception. Beyond questioning Mamata’s authority, the more pertinent question among people is how an agency like the ED failed to take precautionary measures despite having prior experience like Sandeshkhali,” Chakraborty said.

Adhikari defended the ED’s performance by referring to its petition in Calcutta High Court, in which Mamata and senior police officers were made parties, along with a demand for a CBI inquiry into the alleged “file heist”. He also admitted that before the ED moved the court, people in Bengal and across India were questioning whether the agency would act or remain silent out of fear of the chief minister and the police.

“People in Bengal were expecting stringent action against Mamata, who took away the files. There was doubt about what the ED would do after such a major incident. However, the petition filed by the ED shows that appropriate action has been taken. The rest now depends on the court’s decision,” Adhikari said.

Since the incident, Mamata, irrespective of debates over the legality of her actions, has taken up the issue politically by mobilising the rank and file of the Trinamool Congress. On the other hand, apart from organising a small protest in Calcutta on Friday to counter Mamata’s mega march, the BJP is yet to take the issue statewide. A party source said the BJP would certainly raise the matter across Bengal.

“But Mamata Banerjee has already gained political advantage by deploying party workers across the state, while the BJP has largely confined itself to social media and media statements,” Chakraborty said.

A BJP delegation led by five senior leaders, including Shishir Bajoria and Locket Chatterjee, met governor C.V. Ananda Bose, seeking his intervention as the constitutional head to take action against Mamata for allegedly misusing her constitutional power and interfering in a probe by a central agency. While the governor did not directly comment on Thursday’s incident, he said he was examining the legal aspects of constitutional violations and maintained that anyone who violates constitutional norms should not continue in office.

The governor’s security was beefed up after he received a threat email on Thursday. On Friday, he had walked through the streets of Calcutta without security personnel, stating that the people of Bengal would protect him, as part of a symbolic protest against the threat to “will blast the governor”.