Bankura/Purulia,: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought to turn the BJP-led Centre’s setback over the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 into an election weapon in West Bengal, accusing the TMC of “betraying” women by opposing the move in Parliament and warning that they would punish the ruling party in the assembly polls.
Addressing four back-to-back rallies across Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and Medinipur in the politically crucial Junglemahal belt and adjoining districts, Modi attacked the TMC over its stand on the women’s reservation bill in a state where women voters, who constitute nearly half the electorate, and welfare beneficiaries have emerged as the most decisive electoral constituency.
At the same time, Modi framed the coming assembly election as a wider battle over Bengal’s identity, language and culture, accusing the TMC of favouring “infiltrators”, neglecting tribals and presiding over corruption and “cut-money” politics.
The speeches, delivered across the BJP’s old stronghold in western Bengal where the party is trying to regain lost ground, reflected a calibrated attempt to stitch together five themes into one campaign narrative — women allegedly betrayed by the TMC, tribals deprived of development, native Bengalis threatened by infiltration, ordinary people frustrated by corruption, and a state in danger of losing its identity.
Beginning the day in Bankura, Modi put the failed women’s reservation bill at the centre of his political attack.
“We want more and more daughters to enter politics. The sisters of West Bengal wanted 33 per cent reservation, and Modi ensured it. They wanted it implemented from 2029 itself, but TMC did not want it,” he said.
The PM accused the Mamata Banerjee-led party of conspiring with the Congress to prevent the passage of the bill, which sought to reserve one-third of seats in Parliament and state assemblies for women before 2029.
“The TMC has once again betrayed the sisters of West Bengal. The women of Bengal will punish TMC in this election,” he said.
Modi alleged that the TMC feared greater participation of women in politics because women were increasingly challenging what he called the ruling party’s “mahajungleraj”.
From Bankura, Modi carried the same attack into Purulia, where he sharpened the BJP’s tribal and Junglemahal pitch.
Accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of changing Bengal’s language and culture through infiltration, he said the state was witnessing a gradual erosion of its social character.
“Due to infiltration, Bengal’s language and culture are witnessing a change,” Modi said.
He alleged that the Santali language was being humiliated while the state government was spending heavily on madrasa education, calling it an example of appeasement politics.
Modi repeatedly described the TMC regime as “Maha jungleraj”, accusing it of leaving tribal districts such as Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram without roads, jobs, drinking water, irrigation and healthcare.
Linking corruption with growing unemployment, Modi referred to the school jobs scam and claimed that the TMC had robbed thousands of youths of jobs and left schools without teachers.
The ideological core of Modi’s campaign, however, emerged most sharply in Jhargram, where he described the coming election as a battle to save Bengal’s identity.
“This election is to save the rich heritage of this land. Today, there is fear of Bengal losing its identity,” he said.
According to Modi, the TMC was trying to create a “government of infiltrators and for infiltrators” that would protect only the religion, language and customs of outsiders rather than those of Bengal’s own people.
“The path that the TMC is treading is very dangerous,” he said, alleging that the ruling party was giving priority to infiltrators over native Bengalis.
He claimed that every community and region of Bengal had resolved to remove the TMC from power, and accused the state government of doing little for tribal areas in 15 years, except to deepen poverty and neglect.
In Jhargram, Modi returned to the issue of tribal deprivation, alleging that the region had received neither education, nor income, nor healthcare, nor irrigation under the TMC rule.
The final rally in Medinipur added the corruption and governance layer to the BJP’s larger Bengal pitch.
Modi alleged that the ruling party had “earned a PhD in looting” during its 15 years in office and survived on infiltration and appeasement politics while pushing women, youths and farmers into despair.
“TMC only thinks about its vote bank. It thinks about infiltrators. It has no concern for anyone else,” he said.
The PM accused the state government of corruption in teacher recruitment, jobs, housing schemes, rural roads, and even relief for cyclone-hit people.
He alleged that young people were being forced to leave Bengal in search of work as their jobs have been taken away by infiltrators and that women were returning from Delhi and Mumbai only to cast their votes.
Seeking to reassure state government employees, Modi promised implementation of the 7th Pay Commission if the BJP came to power in the state.
Modi claimed that the TMC opposed the women’s reservation bill because it feared women from villages and small towns would enter politics and ask questions about corruption.
He also accused the TMC and the Congress of insulting President Droupadi Murmu and alleged that both parties were opposed to tribal empowerment.
Modi further claimed that the TMC was ignoring the grievances of the Kurmi community while selectively extending benefits to its “vote bank”.
