ED raid aimed at stealing Trinamool’s data ahead of 2026 polls: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: Leading a nearly 10-km-long protest march through the heart of Kolkata city on Friday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that ED's searches at the premises of I-PAC were aimed at "stealing" Trinamool's internal strategy ahead of the 2026 elections and that she went there and I-PAC director Pratik Jain's residence during the raids to "save data".

"What I did on Thursday, I did as AITC chairman and have not done anything wrong... why have you (ED) come as a thief... All SIR-related and common people's data was taken away... You were taking all our data. The whole thing was being done from 6 am... I went there after 12 o'clock," Banerjee said.

She pointed out that the same I-PAC, which was headed by Prashant Kishor previously, had once worked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his poll strategy organisation during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. "I-PAC has worked for Chandrababu Naidu, Jagan Reddy and Nitish Kumar. Prashant Kishor was there and later there was a shift of ownership. We have given them charge for running our IT cell," Banerjee pointed out.


Kicking off her 2026 assembly-type poll campaign with her signature protest walkathon, Banerjee walked from Jadavpur, where she became the MP for the first time, to her residential neighbourhood at Hazra More, against the ED raids.

Banerjee said there was an attack on Bengal in a bid to capture the state as she raised the issue of "vote chori" with the alleged help of ECI. "They (BJP) did 'vote chori' through ECI and have captured Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar forcefully. And now they intend to capture Bengal forcefully," she claimed.

Calling her party workers to put a death knell to BJP in Bengal, she said, "In 2026, we will not 'fall from power' but the BJP government will not be in power in Delhi. They are threatening us with agency power. If you want to fight, fight us democratically."

Banerjee claimed she has such data in her pen drive that can expose many and make tremors across the globe. "I am in the chair, so I will not release the pen drives and expose everything. I know many things but don't speak keeping in mind the interest of the country as I love my country... but it is not my weakness."

Several Trinamool MPs were detained for protesting outside the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi.