Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee cast his vote at the Mitra Institution polling booth in the Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency on Tuesday and used the moment to project strong confidence in his party’s prospects. Speaking to reporters after voting in the second phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections, he said the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) would be reduced to “less than 50 seats” this time.
On being asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim of winning the West Bengal Assembly elections 2026 by a huge margin, Banerjee told reporters, “He (Amit Shah) said they would win 200 seats in 2021, but it was the TMC that crossed that mark. They claimed they would secure 30 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in reality, TMC won 29. Now they are saying 177. If you go by their own track record, they will fall below 50”.
“Polling has just started; we should wait for another hour before drawing conclusions. Election Observers are flouting the Supreme Court and High Court’s guidelines and the guidelines in the Election Commission’s handbook. They are subservient to their political masters in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. None of these tricks will work. When the ballots open, the TMC will come back with a bigger majority. We have written to the CEC, now it is for them to act,” he added.
Banerjee’s remarks came as polling was underway in 142 constituencies across West Bengal amid tight security arrangements. In his response to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s prediction of a big BJP win, he referred to the party’s earlier claims in past elections and said their own track record would bring them “below 50” once the results were counted.
He also took a sharp swipe at the BJP led central government over the deployment of central forces, saying that people of Bengal were being shown fear instead of trust. Banerjee further repeated his confidence that the TMC’s vote share would rise and that the party would form the government for a fourth time with a larger majority than in 2021.
The second and final phase of polling was being held across seven districts, with the Election Commission deploying thousands of central force personnel and extensive webcasting surveillance at polling stations. Counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.
