SHAH ESCALATES ATTACK ON TMC, PROMISES JOBS, GORKHA SOLUTION AND UCC

PTI, April 21, 2026, Kurseong/Salboni/Kulti :  Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday mounted a multi-pronged offensive against the TMC, seeking to stitch together disparate strands of discontent in West Bengal -- from the Darjeeling hills to the industrial belt of Kulti and the agrarian East Midnapore -- into a single narrative of "change".

In four rallies across north and south of Bengal on the final day of campaigning for the first phase of assembly polls, he accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of shielding infiltrators, nurturing dynastic politics and presiding over corruption, fear and joblessness.

The sharpest political message came from Kurseong in Darjeeling district, where Shah attempted to strike an emotional chord with the politically crucial hill electorate by promising to resolve the decades-old Gorkha issue within six months if the BJP came to power.

"Within six months of the BJP forming the government in West Bengal, every Gorkha will have a smile on his face. We will find such a solution to the Gorkha issue that Gorkhas can live in peace," he said.

Though Shah did not utter the words "Gorkhaland" or "statehood", the promise was a clear reiteration of the BJP's long-standing assurance of a "permanent political solution" for the hills -- an issue that has shaped politics in Darjeeling for decades.

The BJP has retained the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat since 2009, largely on the back of this promise, even as it stopped short of explicitly endorsing a separate state, mindful of the political backlash such a move could trigger in south Bengal.

Seeking to put the TMC on the defensive in the hills, Shah claimed that after becoming the Union home minister, he had convened three meetings on the issue, but "not even once" did a representative of Mamata Banerjee attend those.

"Mamata Didi, we are not dependent on you for a solution to the Gorkha issue. We have appointed an interlocutor who is preparing a report by engaging with Gorkha organisations here and officials of the West Bengal government," he added.

Shah also promised that names of Gorkhas allegedly deleted during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls would be restored and that "false cases" slapped on Gorkha activists would be withdrawn before July 31, if the BJP formed a government in Bengal.

From the hills, Shah moved to the industrial belt of Kulti in Paschim Bardhaman, where he mixed the BJP's campaign against "infiltration" with promises of jobs and industrial revival.

Terming the election a chance to make Bengal "infiltrator-free", Shah alleged the TMC had "stolen" jobs from the deserving youths and "sold" those to the undeserving.

"The BJP promises merit-based employment to one lakh youths in Bengal every year," he said, pledging to revive Kulti's old industrial glory, curb illegal mining and rein in pollution from sponge iron factories.

The BJP leader also sharpened his attack on what the party calls "bhaipo culture", repeatedly targeting Mamata Banerjee's nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

"Didi's dream of putting her nephew in the chief minister's chair will never be fulfilled," Shah said at Kulti, before carrying the attack further at Salboni in Paschim Medinipur.

At Salboni, Shah framed the election as a fight to "free Bengal from infiltrators, corruption and fear" and sought to reassure voters unnerved by the BJP's long delay in naming a chief ministerial face.

"I assure you that the next chief minister of Bengal will be from the BJP, born and brought up in Bengal, and he will speak Bengali. Certainly, he will not be 'bhaipo'. He will be a BJP worker," he said.

Shah also invoked the Ram temple issue and accused Mamata Banerjee of backing attempts to build a "Babri Masjid" in Bengal through suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir.

"Mamata Didi wants her associate Humayun Kabir to build a Babri Masjid in Bengal. Didi, listen carefully. Bengal is in India. We will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built in Bengal," Shah said.

The remarks are likely to further sharpen the communal pitch of the election campaign in a state where the BJP has repeatedly sought to foreground issues such as infiltration, minority appeasement and the Ram temple, while the TMC has accused the saffron party of trying to polarise voters.

Shah also promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Bengal and claimed it would end the practice of "four marriages" among "some people", while projecting the BJP as the protector of women's safety in the wake of Sandeshkhali, RG Kar and other incidents.

"Mamata Didi says that after 7 pm, mothers and sisters should not step out of their homes. But after May 5, if a girl goes out on a scooter even at 1 am, no thug will dare raise his eyes at her," he said.

At his final rally in Chandipur in Purba Medinipur, bordering Suvendu Adhikari's Nandigram bastion, Shah mixed confidence with a warning.

With 2,450 companies of CAPF deployed for the polls, he urged voters to cast their ballots without fear and warned "TMC goons" that they would have "no place to hide" after May 4.

"No one can threaten our voters. Central forces are in every nook and corner of Bengal," he said.

Shah also promised that infiltrators would be identified and deported, and the Bangladesh border sealed within 45 days of the BJP coming to power.

He also said a research centre would be set up in Chandipur to study the medicinal properties of betel leaf.