KOLKATA: On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone and tenor of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the 2026 Assembly elections in West Bengal. Addressing a public meeting in Alipurduar in North Bengal, he launched a scathing attack on the “ruthless” Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal by bringing up the recent riots that broke out in the state, the teacher recruitment scam, and corruption. He made the remarks without taking Mamata Banerjee’s name but used the term “nirmamta”, which means cruelty in Hindi, in a veiled attack and wordplay on Mamata Banerjee’s name.
“The ruthless character of this government was seen in the Murshidabad and Malda riots, where a ruling party MLA led the riots. They ransacked the homes and belongings of our mothers and sisters, and the police remained mute spectators. One can assume what happened there during the riots,” Modi said.
The bulk of PM Modi’s speech was around the familiar themes of corruption under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government, the stonewalling of Centrally sponsored welfare schemes, and the success of Operation Sindoor.
PM Modi devoted a majority of his 38-minute address to the various corrupt activities of the Trinamool Congress. He dwelt upon the corruption in the recruitment of schoolteachers, where the Supreme Court had invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff of state-aided schools, saying the entire hiring process was “totally vitiated and tainted”.
“We saw the level of corruption of this government in the teacher recruitment examination. They sent the lives of young teachers to unlimited darkness. They are not even ready to accept their faults. They are blaming the court for their verdict,” the PM said.
Identifying five “dangers” in the state, he said: “Bangla is plagued by many problems. One, society’s violence and anarchy. Two, mothers’ and sisters’ insecurities…they are facing heinous crimes. Three, unemployment is increasing. Four, deadly corruption…human faith in the administration is diminishing. Five is the selfish attitude of the rulers who are snatching the rights of the poor.”
“I want to ask the poor people of Bengal—is this how a government is supposed to function? Here, the courts have to step in on almost every matter, because nothing gets resolved otherwise. The people have lost faith in the TMC government,” Narendra Modi said.
With Assembly elections scheduled to be held in the state next year, PM Modi sounded the poll bugle, asking, “Will the government go like this? Banglar matir chitkar, chaina ar nirmam sarkar (The soil of Bengal is crying, we don’t want a ruthless government).”
On his first visit to the state after Operation Sindoor, PM Modi referred to India’s military campaign following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, saying, “From this land of Bengal, I declare on behalf of 140 crore Indians that Operation Sindoor is not yet over.”
“There was a lot of anger in West Bengal too after the barbarity committed by terrorists in Pahalgam on April 22. I understood very well the anger that was within you. The terrorists had the audacity to wipe away the sindoor (vermilion) of our sisters. Our Army made them realise the power of sindoor,” he said.
“Terrorists had dared to wipe out the sindoor of our sisters, but our forces made them realise the strength of the sindoor,” he said, drawing loud cheers from the crowd. He then said: “We destroyed cross-border terror infrastructure, which Pakistan never thought of.”
The Prime Minister also expressed disappointment over the West Bengal government’s absence from the recent NITI Aayog meeting.
“It is unfortunate that the Bengal government chose not to participate in such an important meeting. It shows their lack of seriousness towards development and that they are more interested in playing politics,” PM Modi said.
He accused the state government of obstructing the implementation of Central development schemes, claiming that out of 4,000 km of rural roads sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in West Bengal, less than 400 km have been constructed so far.
Making a strong outreach to the tribal population of the Alipurduar region, PM alleged that the TMC government harbours animosity towards tribal communities.
“Even their hatred towards tribal communities is no less. West Bengal has a significant tribal population, yet their welfare is being ignored. To uplift tribal families, the central government launched the PM Janman Scheme, focusing on education, healthcare, housing, and livelihood. But sadly, the TMC government has not implemented the same in the state,” he said.
“I am saddened to say that while the entire country is benefiting from the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the people of West Bengal are being denied access to free health checkups and quality healthcare.”
In two successive Assembly elections since the BJP’s sudden rise in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party has not been able to turn its fight into victory.
Change in the party’s Bengal unit captaincy from Dilip Ghosh, who has fallen foul of the BJP’s central leadership, to Balurghat MP and junior Union minister Sukanto Majumdar and the over-dependence on Suvendu Adhikari have done little to change the BJP’s fortunes in Bengal.
North Bengal, where Alipurduar is situated, has been a happy hunting ground for the BJP in the past elections. But from last year’s Lok Sabha election onwards, the party has seen a mild downward slide in its emerging stronghold, thanks to some back and forth in the form of defection, a familiar phenomenon in Bengal’s political theatre.
From the 30 legislators that the BJP had from the region after the 2021 Assembly election, around five have defected to the Trinamool. Significantly, Modi’s party has also lost the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, which it had won in 2014 and 2019, to the Trinamool in the last Lok Sabha election.
PM Modi’s trip to Bengal will be followed by the BJP’s launch of a media campaign geared for the 2026 Assembly election. The prod from the PM was what the Bengal unit of the party, perpetually mired in intra-party squabbles, probably needs.
