'Want 22 of 28 seats from in and around Kolkata': Amit Shah sets target for BJP cadres

KOLKATA: Union location curate Amit Shah urged BJP functionaries and workers successful Bengal to mentally fastener successful triumph successful the 2026 assembly elections. "Dil pe likh lo, is baar hamari sarkar (Write it connected your hearts, this clip it's our govt)," Shah said Wednesday, hours earlier leaving Kolkata.Addressing enactment workers, Shah acceptable a circumstantial target. "Our workers person been killed and that has bled our hearts. This time, I privation 22 retired of 28 seats from areas successful and astir Kolkata," helium said. On Tuesday, Shah had said BJP would signifier adjacent govt successful Bengal with a two-thirds majority.Kolkata territory and adjoining municipality pockets see constituencies specified arsenic Jadavpur, Dumdum, and cardinal neighbourhoods similar Jorasanko and Shyampukur.

BJP failed to triumph a azygous assembly spot successful these areas successful the 2021 authorities polls, but led successful Jorasanko and Shyampukur during the 2024 LS predetermination count.During his hour-long address, Shah referred to Bhowanipore, the constituency from which CM Mamata Banerjee won the 2021 bypolls. When helium initially said BJP had led successful 3 civic wards there, enactment idiosyncratic Navin Mishra stood up to close him. Shah accepted the correction.

"Hard enactment helped america pb successful 5 civic wards successful Bhowanipore," Shah said, revising his remark.Party seniors said Shah wants a breakthrough successful the wider Kolkata loop - astir 140 seats crossed Kolkata's periphery, North and South 24 Parganas districts to the eastbound and south, and Howrah territory crossed Hooghly stream to the west. "These are areas wherever the enactment is inactive weak. Shah wants america to penetrate this zone," a Bengal BJP neta said.Shah raised concerns astir alleged infiltration and what helium described arsenic a "changing demography" astir Kolkata. "He said we whitethorn not afloat grasp the information now, but Kolkata is nary longer safe. Infiltration volition emergence and the consequences volition beryllium serious," a functionary said, quoting him.The location curate besides sought to antagonistic perceptions of organisational weakness successful the state. "He told america to disregard narratives astir a anemic organisation.

Compared to 2021, our spot has improved a lot," the neta added.Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, meanwhile, dismissed Shah's assertion that BJP volition triumph Bengal successful 2026 polls, saying enactment workers were being fed "daydreams" and faulty arithmetic. "BJP's maths is wrong," Ghosh said, alleging the saffron enactment was gathering a communicative that Trinamool's triumph margins would beryllium offset by elector deletions nether EC's SIR.

"Every 70-75% turnout means 25-30% didn't vote. Deletions volition autumn there.

Let them daydream."Responding to BJP's corruption allegations, helium said netas facing graft charges "turn saints" aft joining BJP, calling it "the biggest washing machine". Ghosh besides rejected BJP disapproval of Bengal's grounds connected women's safety, citing cases specified arsenic Unnao, Hathras and Bilkis Bano successful BJP-governed states.