'Won't win even 50 seats': TMC rebuts Amit Shah's two-thirds majority pitch in West Bengal

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday rejected Union Home Minister Amit Shah's claim that the BJP would form the next government in West Bengal with a two-thirds majority in the 2026 Assembly elections.

Senior TMC leader and state education minister Bratya Basu dismissed Shah's assertion as hollow, saying the BJP would not even reach the 50-seat mark. "Shah will keep coming and going like a tourist. Such visits will serve no purpose," Basu told reporters in Kolkata. "The BJP will not even cross the 50-mark in the assembly polls and suffer a humiliating defeat."

Shah, who arrived in Kolkata on Monday evening on a three-day visit, addressed a press conference on Tuesday where he reiterated that the BJP will come to power in the state. "We will not only identify infiltrators, but we'll also drive them out. Bengal will have a new BJP government after April 15, 2026, as people have made up their minds," he said, asserting that the party would secure a "two-thirds majority in 2026".

The Home Minister alleged that infiltration from Bangladesh had "dangerously altered" West Bengal's demography and accused the state government of abetting it. He also said the Centre had been unable to complete fencing along the India–Bangladesh border because the state government was not providing the required land. Shah promised that a BJP government would stop infiltration from the eastern borders and revitalise the state's economy.

Responding to Shah's remarks on political strategy, TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar rejected the claim that the BJP does not engage in temple-based polarisation. "Everyone knows the BJP campaigned on temple-masjid politics in both the 2019 and 2024 elections. This brand of politics will again be rejected by the people of Bengal," Majumdar said.

Shah also sought to reassure the Matua community, saying there was "no reason to fear" the SIR exercise. "It is our pledge that all religiously persecuted refugees will be accommodated in the country. Even Mamata Banerjee cannot cause harm to the Matuas," he said, accusing the TMC of practising politics of fear and violence. He alleged that more than 300 BJP workers had been killed and over 3,000 displaced, claiming they were being pressured to return home only if they carried the TMC flag.

In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP won 77 of the 294 seats, a sharp rise from just three in 2016.