TMC scoffs at Shah’s ‘2/3rd majority’ claim, says BJP won’t cross 50 seats in Bengal

The TMC (Trinamool Congress) on Tuesday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his claim that the BJP would secure a two-thirds majority in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, accusing him of peddling falsehoods and making baseless assertions.

Senior TMC leader and state education minister Bratya Basu said Shah’s remarks were detached from political reality and claimed that the BJP would not even cross the 50-seat mark in the state.

“Shah will keep coming and going like a tourist. Such visits will serve no purpose,” Basu told reporters on the sidelines of a programme.
“The BJP will not even cross the 50-mark in the Assembly polls and will suffer a humiliating defeat,” he added.

Basu’s comments came hours after Shah, addressing a press conference in Kolkata, asserted that the BJP would form the next government in West Bengal with a “two-thirds majority” in 2026.

“We will not only identify infiltrators, but we will also drive them out. Bengal will have a new BJP government after April 15, 2026, as people have made up their minds,” Shah said.

The Union home minister also took aim at the Mamata Banerjee-led government on the issue of women’s safety, alleging that women were unsafe in the state after dark.

“It has been officially stated that women should not step out of their homes after 7 pm. What era are we living in? Are we living in the Mughal period?” Shah asked.

“Mamata ji, this is a free India. Ensuring that women can step out safely whenever they choose is a constitutional right. Your government has failed to provide this basic security,” he added.

Rejecting the charge, senior TMC leader and minister Sashi Panja urged Shah to visit West Bengal during major festivals to see the ground reality.

“Amit Shah should come to Bengal during Durga Puja or Christmas, when thousands of women freely move around and participate in festivities,” Panja said.

“In case a stray incident happens, our administration takes prompt action. Instead, rapists of Bilkis Bano are garlanded by your party activists. Your party shields Kuldeep Sengar and Brij Bhusan, who face serious allegations. Amitji should not lecture us on women’s security,” she said.

Panja also accused the BJP-led Centre of blocking the passage of the Aparajita Bill, which she said would have ensured exemplary punishment for rapists after conviction.

Countering Shah’s remarks on Bengal’s industrial decline, Panja said the state had attracted investments worth Rs 13.8 lakh crore since 2011.
“Bengal occupies the second position in the MSME sector as per data available with the Centre. Despite this, he is peddling falsehoods about industrial growth,” she said.

TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar also dismissed Shah’s assertion that the BJP does not indulge in temple-centric polarisation.

“Everyone knows the BJP campaigned on temple-masjid politics in the 2019 and 2024 elections. This brand of politics will once again be rejected by the people of Bengal,” Majumdar said.

With PTI inputs