Addressing the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad foundation day rally in Kolkata on Friday, Banerjee said the BJP government in West Bengal had already become unpopular within months of taking office. She urged Trinamool workers to remain on the streets and rebuild the organisation after the party’s heavy defeat in the May Assembly election.
Banerjee said a “second Parivartan” was approaching in Bengal, borrowing the language of political change that helped propel her to power in 2011 after 34 years of Left Front rule. This time, however, she deployed the slogan against the BJP administration led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Her comments represented one of her strongest declarations of an attempted comeback since the BJP swept the 2026 Assembly election. The BJP won 207 seats, while the Trinamool Congress secured 80 in the 294-member House. Results were declared for 293 constituencies, giving the BJP an overwhelming legislative majority and ending Banerjee’s 15-year tenure as chief minister.
Banerjee alleged that the BJP had “captured” power through electoral manipulation and accused it of using the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls to influence the election. She claimed legitimate voters had been removed from the rolls and maintained that Trinamool would have retained power under a fair electoral process.
The charges remain allegations and have become a central theme of Trinamool’s post-election political campaign. The BJP has rejected accusations that its victory resulted from manipulation and has presented the verdict as a decisive rejection of the previous government.
Banerjee also stepped up attacks on the functioning of the state administration, accusing the police of abandoning the approach followed during her government. She said opposition parties should not have to repeatedly approach courts for permission to organise political programmes and warned that Trinamool would hold meetings and demonstrations even when administrative clearance was withheld.
The confrontation has intensified following a dispute at the Trinamool office on Camac Street, where police and civic officials went to remove an allegedly illegal signboard. A scuffle followed, leading to three FIRs involving senior Trinamool leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, and the arrest of 13 people.
Banerjee demanded the release of those arrested and questioned the manner in which officials carried out the operation. The episode has provided the Trinamool leadership with another rallying point as it attempts to portray the BJP government as politically vindictive and overly dependent on police power.
Her remarks also followed an escalating exchange with Adhikari. Banerjee had earlier declared that she would not retire from politics until the BJP was politically defeated. Adhikari responded with comments suggesting that the former chief minister should remain indoors rather than return to street politics, triggering protests from Trinamool leaders.
Banerjee used Friday’s rally to answer the challenge, saying she planned to travel across districts and directly engage with supporters. She suggested she would personally take to the streets if authorities attempted to restrict political activity, reinforcing indications that Trinamool intends to shift towards sustained agitation rather than confine its opposition to the Assembly.
The party is simultaneously confronting internal disruption after its election defeat. Twenty Trinamool MPs who moved to the Nationalist Citizens Party of India face petitions seeking their disqualification from the Lok Sabha under the anti-defection law. Banerjee said their disqualification was only a matter of time, while senior Trinamool figures have ruled out automatically welcoming defectors back into the organisation.
Abhishek Banerjee has also adopted a harder political line, signalling that rebuilding the party will involve both resistance to the BJP and tighter discipline within Trinamool. The leadership is seeking to prevent further defections while retaining cadres who operated for years within a party accustomed to controlling the state government.
Banerjee’s reference to Delhi broadens that strategy beyond Bengal. By linking Trinamool’s prospects to an eventual BJP setback at the Centre, she is attempting to persuade supporters that the May defeat represents an interruption rather than a permanent change in the state’s political balance.
