Trinamool’s total seats, vote percentage will increase in 2026 Assembly polls: Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata: Slamming the BJP for the “infiltration” theory, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said on Wednesday that the Trinamool Congress’ total seats and vote percentage will increase in the 2026 Assembly polls, compared to 2021, despite the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Banerjee also said that Bengal has been defamed in front of the country in the name of infiltration.

“As per the draft list, around 58 lakh voters have been excluded. In any summary revision exercise, a routine exclusion of around 2-2.5% voters is there. The final picture will only be clear once the final list is published on February 14,” Banerjee said. However, he pointed out that he is not satisfied with the overall process of the SIR exercise as it was an “unplanned exercise” and so many BLOs died. “This is an unplanned and botched-up exercise,” he said.

“If someone is an eligible voter, no matter how many attempts are made, their name cannot be removed. In Dankuni, ward number 18, the ward councillor has been shown as dead. If a living person is declared dead, what is the use of SIR,” he said. “The prime minister, home minister, and the entire Cabinet have been elected by the voters who are now considered illlegal. If these voters are illegal, then how are the prime minister, home minister, and the entire cabinet legal,” he asked.


Banerjee said, “We will participate in the claims & objections period in the next nearly 1.5 months and all Trinamool BLA-1s, BLA-2s and booth-level workers will remain fully active. The unmapped cases will be raised during the claims and objections period, followed by hearings, and based on those hearings it will be decided whether the names stay or are removed.”

Slamming Union home minister Amit Shah, Banerjee questioned if “the BJP has deliberately created a fake narrative of 1-1.5 crore ‘Rohingya infiltrators’,” a claim that has effectively been invalidated by the Election Commission.

“If infiltration is the issue, the Union home minister, who controls the borders and commands the CRPF, must answer,” Banerjee said.

TO MEET SUNALI KHATUN SOON

Banerjee will meet Sunali Khatun soon. He said Khatun was deported to Bangladesh despite her parents’ names being there in the 2002 SIR list. “Following Supreme Court intervention, she was repatriated. I am meeting her and her family in two days. We stood by them throughout, and I want to say clearly, if anyone else is facing such harassment, the Trinamool Congress is with you.”