BanglaHunt Dask: In the last assembly elections, one of the main slogans used by the Trinamool Congress against the BJP was “outsider.” The BJP was accused of being anti-Bengali. Slogans like “Bengal wants its own daughter” and issues like the NRC were at the forefront. This time, the Trinamool Congress has stepped into the battlefield with a fresh issue. The party claims that Bengalis are being oppressed in BJP-ruled states, and anyone speaking Bengali is being harassed and labeled as “Bangladeshi.” In some cases, people have even been deported to Bangladesh and had to be brought back. There is no doubt that this issue of Bengali identity and alleged anti-Bengali sentiment by the BJP will be a major weapon in Trinamool’s campaign for the 2026 elections.
Today, Wednesday, Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party’s All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee will walk on the streets of Kolkata. This rally, starting from College Square and ending at Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala, is a protest against the BJP’s alleged hostility towards Bengalis. The Trinamool is set to intensify the narrative that BJP is anti-Bengali.
A delegation from the Trinamool Congress is currently stationed in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and others have staged a sit-in protest there. Trinamool alleges that in BJP-ruled states like Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh, there is clear hostility towards Bengalis. In some places, Bengali speakers are being detained. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself has had to intervene. Trinamool wants to capitalize on this issue. The party is determined to launch a massive campaign with the slogan “BJP is anti-Bengali.” According to political observers, this is going to be one of the main weapons for Trinamool in the 2026 Assembly elections.
However, the BJP has given a clear statement on the issue of alleged anti-Bengali sentiment. The saffron camp claims that the BJP harbors no anti-Bengali stance. Action is being taken only against illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh in other states. Incidentally, they speak Bengali. But no illegal infiltrator can stay in this country and hatch conspiracies. On the contrary, the BJP alleges that thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators are living in West Bengal, and the Mamata Banerjee government is taking no action against them.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, words like “Bengali,” “Bengal’s daughter,” and “outsider” echoed repeatedly in Trinamool rallies. This time, the scale of that narrative is expected to grow even bigger — with the upcoming mega rally by the Trinamool Congress marking its beginning. Recently, former BJP president Asim Ghosh was appointed as Governor of Haryana — a move that many see as BJP’s effort to shed the anti-Bengali label.