Kolkata, Feb 27 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the ruling Trinamool Congress would emerge victorious with a two-thirds majority in the West Bengal Assembly elections next year.
Addressing a Trinamool Congress workers' meeting at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here, Banerjee said her party would win 215 of the total 294 seats in the 2026 elections.
Banerjee called upon the party workers to set aside their differences and connect with the people by going from house to house in the run up to the elections.
She urged the party workers to ensure the BJP, Congress and Left Front candidates lost their security deposits in all the seats in the polls.
Banerjee said she agreed with party Natinoal General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee's statement that in 2026 the TMC must win a higher number of seats than the previous elections. In the 2021 elections the TMC had won 214 seats in the 294-member House.
“I agree with Abhishek. We should get at least one more seat than what we got in 2021. We should ensure 215 seats and try for more. We should ensure that candidates of the BJP, the CPIM, and Congress forfeit their deposits in the elections,” the TMC supremo said.
Banerjee, also revived her 'Khela Hobe' (the game is on) slogan, vowing a fierce battle in the state in 2026. She warned that the TMC would not hesitate to protest outside the Election Commission office if needed against registration of fake voters in the electoral list.
"Khela abar hobey (the game is on again), in 2026 elections, bowl hard, kick fast," Banerjee said, using imageries from cricket and football, as she urged the TMC workers to ensure the defeat of the BJP, the current main opposition in the state.
She said the BJP won the recent polls in Delhi and Maharashtra by using fake voters with the Election Commission of India's blessing.
"We need to clean the voter list first, and then go to the hustings," Banerjee told the party workers.
The Chief Minister said when the election approaches, the CBI, ED, and other central agencies become active. She asked the central agencies if anyone so far arrested from her party has been convicted.
"Even the RG Kar Hospital case could not be settled," Banerjee pointed out, referring to the brutal murder of a lady junior doctor in the leading medical college of the state on August 9 last year.
"We know now many more names would be added in the CBI and ED list as the elections approach, but you (BJP) can not do anything because the people of Bengal have not been misguided so far, " Banerjee said.
Earlier Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee dared the CBI to prove if he has done anything wrong.
He said the CBI in its recent third chargesheet filed in a city court in the alleged teacher's recruitment scam named him twice in the 27-page document, but "strangely without giving any further details".
The MP said he had been summoned several times. But even though he was quizzed for over 10 hours, the central agency has failed to prove anything so far. UNI PC BD SSP