Abhishek Banerjee compares BJP to Left Front, warns of electoral backlash

Kolkata: On the 18th anniversary of the Nandigram police firing, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee declared that West Bengal would teach the BJP a lesson just as it did to the CPI(M)-led Left Front in 2011.

In a social media post on Monday, Banerjee refrained from naming the BJP directly, instead referring to them as “the zamindars of Delhi”. “Bengal taught the Left Front a lesson it will never forget. Today, we send the same message to the zamindars of Delhi. Bengal will resist, relentlessly and resolutely. We will crush their arrogance in the ballot box and consign this politics of exclusion to the dustbin of history,” he wrote.

Banerjee also criticised the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the Election Commission of India, calling it “silent invisible rigging”. He likened it to the Left Front’s “scientific rigging” tactics before 2011, claiming the only change was in the face of the oppressor. “The ‘harmads’ of yesterday have returned as the ‘jallads of today’,” he said.

The remarks were made on the anniversary of the 2007 Nandigram incident, where 14 people were killed in police firing during protests against land acquisition for a proposed chemical hub. The movement, led by Trinamool Congress and reportedly supported by Maoists, had cut off Nandigram from the rest of the state. The tragedy is widely seen as a turning point that led to the fall of the Left Front’s 24-year rule and the rise of Mamata Banerjee’s government in 2011.

Banerjee’s comments reflect the party’s attempt to draw parallels between past and present political struggles in Bengal, positioning the BJP as the new face of authoritarianism.

(Inputs from IANS)