West Bengal: Shah vs Mamata, 180 km and 30 minutes apart

Distance: 180 kilometres. Time gap: 30 minutes. That was all it took on Tuesday for Union home minister Amit Shah and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to trade attacks and counterattacks, making it abundantly clear that the countdown to the 2026 Assembly elections has begun well before the calendar turns.

Shah fired the opening salvo at a press conference at the BJP’s Salt Lake office, listing five familiar charges against the Trinamool Congress government. Barely half-an-hour after he finished, Banerjee responded — point by point — from a rally stage at Barjora in Bankura, almost as if she had been waiting for her cue.

Adding a flourish to her rebuttal, she warned that Shah had been able to step out of his Kolkata hotel only because her party the Trinamool Congress (TMC) practises “politics of courtesy”. Otherwise, she said, “he wouldn’t have been able to take even one step”, and would have had to remain “confined to Tal Kutir”. Shah, notably, is staying at a hotel near Eco Park in New Town during this visit.

Shah argued that infiltration through West Bengal’s borders was not merely a state issue but a national security concern, urging voters to bring in a “strong government” that would stop it completely.

Mamata shot back with a series of rhetorical questions. “Is infiltration only this state’s problem?” she asked, invoking Kashmir, the Pahalgam incident, and even the blast near Delhi’s Red Fort. Citing RTI data accessed by TMC MP Saket Gokhale, she noted that of the 140 crore Aadhaar cards issued nationwide, only 11,000 were flagged as infiltrators. “The number is so negligible,” she said.

Shah accused the Trinamool government of blocking infrastructure projects by refusing to provide land, claiming similar problems did not exist in states such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana or even Uttar Pradesh under former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Banerjee dismissed the charge as blatant falsehood. “If land wasn’t given, how was the Tarakeswar–Bankura railway line built?” she asked, citing projects in Jamuria, Raniganj, Asansol and Andal airport. “There’s a limit to lying.” She added that land had been provided in Bongaon, Petrapole and Ghojadanga, and told the Centre to complete pending work before demanding more.

Shah reeled off a long list of alleged scams — from chit funds and recruitment irregularities to cattle smuggling, ration distribution and rural jobs schemes — saying even note-counting machines had “overheated” while counting cash recovered from ministers’ premises. He named several TMC leaders who have faced investigations or imprisonment and accused Mamata of wilful blindness. “You have your eyes shut,” he said, adding that Bengal had been reduced to a system where “only the nephew will earn”.

Banerjee responded bluntly: “If our people commit corruption, take action.” She pointed out that despite arrests, several cases had not held up. Turning the attack around, she accused the BJP of shielding its own “murderers and rapists”, and mocked the ruling party’s claims of opposing dynastic politics. “Then how did your son become chairman of an international sports body (ICC)? To earn crores from there?”

Shah accused the Trinamool of practising appeasement politics for years and now trying to apply “ointment” to fix the damage.

Banerjee brushed it aside, saying she and freedom fighter Matangini Hazra were routinely labelled for political convenience. “They can call me Scheduled Caste, tribal, whatever they like,” she said. “I was born to work for people of all religions.”

Shah expressed confidence that the BJP would form the government in Bengal in 2026, citing a steady rise in vote share from 2014 onwards and projecting a two-thirds majority next time.

Mamata responded with ridicule rather than arithmetic. Recalling the BJP’s 2021 slogan of “Is baar, do-so (200) paar”, she said it had ended in failure. “Last time you got kachu (a pejorative Bengali term literally meaning yam, signifying 'nothing'). This time you’ll get ghenchu,” she said, pausing to ask, “What’s the English for ghenchu, anyway?”

In fact, TMC leaders had begun responding to Shah’s press conference in multiple languages almost immediately after it ended. But Banerjee, characteristically, bundled all five charges into a single counteroffensive — sharp, personalised and theatrical.

The TMC supremo has long kept Shah squarely in her sights, rarely missing an opportunity to attack him in uncompromising terms. Tuesday was no exception, delivered firmly in her familiar battle-ready mode. The question now is whether Shah, on the second day of his West Bengal visit on Wednesday, will choose to escalate the exchange — or let the early campaign skirmish rest, at least for a day.