Abhishek Banerjee on Friday accused the Narendra Modi government of weaponising central investigation agencies to intimidate political opponents and force them into submission ahead of the elections in his first reaction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s raids on I-PAC, which handles the Trinamool Congress's election strategy.
Addressing a public meeting at Taherpur in Nadia, the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress alleged that Thursday’s ED raids were part of a larger conspiracy to weaken the party, particularly at a time when I-PAC was assisting ordinary citizens to navigate the complexities of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bengal.
“While the Election Commission is being engaged to snatch away people’s voting rights, they have got the ED to throttle us — their political rivals. You may use the ED, CBI, the judiciary, the income tax department, the media and your money power, but the people of Bengal will not bow before the butchers and zamindars of the BJP,” he said.
The Diamond Harbour MP told the gathering that the raids were conducted solely because I-PAC worked for Trinamool.
“Yesterday, they sent the ED to conduct a raid. There is an organisation called I-PAC which works for the Trinamool Congress. It developed a mobile application to help people avoid any issues while dealing with the voters’ list during the ongoing SIR process. The application is called ‘Didir Doot’. The raid was conducted because this organisation has been working for Trinamool in the SIR exercise and because it is helping poor people. That is what angered them,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of systematically misusing investigating agencies to browbeat opponents and create fear, Abhishek said: “On one side, they have engaged the EC to rob people of their voting rights through the SIR, and on the other, they have sent the ED to throttle political rivals.”
Asserting that such moves would not succeed, he said Trinamool drew its strength from popular support.
“You have everything, but Trinamool has the people. In a democracy, the people have the final say. Narendra Modi or Amit Shah will not come to vote for the BJP; it is the common people who will decide,” he said.
Abhishek's campaign on Thursday included visits to two major Matua-dominated areas — Taherpur in the Ranaghat parliamentary constituency in Nadia district and Thakurnagar in the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in North 24-Parganas — both of which were won by the BJP in 2024.
His outreach was aimed at consolidating Trinamool’s support base in the politically influential Matua community, sections of which are facing uncertainty over their electoral status amid fears of the exclusion of names from the voters’ list.
While addressing meetings at Taherpur and later during his visit to the Thakurnagar holy abode — where he paid tributes to Matua gurus Harichand and Guruchand Thakur and to the community matriarch Binapani Devi, popularly known as Baro Maa — Abhishek urged members of the community to abandon the BJP.
After Abhishek left for Calcutta following his visit to the Thakurnagar temples, BJP MP and Matua leader Shantanu Thakur and his aides “sanitised” the premises, drawing sharp condemnation from the ruling party in the state.
