Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday targeted West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the second consecutive day in the run-up to the assembly polls, accusing it of treating infiltrators as vote banks and endangering national security.
Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in Hooghly district’s Singur, Modi said, “TMC is playing with the safety of the nation. It is offering all possible help to infiltrators from across the border. It carries out demonstrations to help them. TMC can go to any extent to save its vote bank.”
He inaugurated and laid foundation stones of various development projects worth more than ₹830 crore on Sunday.
The Prime Minister was in Malda district on Saturday, where he promised “big action” against infiltrators if the BJP wins the high-stakes assembly polls, before flagging off the first set of Vande Bharat sleeper trains between Howrah and Guwahati and inaugurating rail and road infrastructure projects worth ₹3,250 crore.
Modi flew to Assam for Bagurumba Dwhou 2026, a cultural event of the Bodo community, before returning to Bengal on Sunday afternoon to further intensify his attack on the TMC government.
“The Centre has been writing to the Bengal government for years, seeking land along the border to set up fences. But Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee neither reads my letters nor lets her officers read them. TMC provides infiltrators with forged documents. Infiltration must end. These people must be identified and deported. Only your vote can achieve that,” Modi said.
Promising a boost to jute mills and agro products in Hooghly district if the BJP came to power, Modi said, “We are putting emphasis on the food processing industry and cold storage chains across India. This will be the priority of the BJP government here. The TMC government does not let the Centre’s schemes reach you.”
“Millions of families in Bengal are involved in fishing. To help fishermen across India, the Centre has built a digital platform, but the TMC government has done nothing to let local fishermen register their names on this platform. TMC is not letting young students avail the benefits of the Centre’s school education system. Shouldn’t TMC be removed to secure the future of the young generation?” he said.
“States ruled by the BJP are doing a lot for people with assistance from the Centre. Tripura, one such state, now provides piped drinking water to 85 out of every 100 homes. Only four out of every 100 homes used to get this water during the Left regime,” he said.
The Prime Minister further added that the BJP should be voted to power to “ensure the safety of women, and to end unemployment and corruption.”
“Investments and industries will come only when law and order is taken care of. Here, rioters and the mafia get a free hand. Only a BJP government can end mafia raj and extortion. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he said.
Though the BJP won the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat in 2019, it failed to secure the Singur assembly segment in the 2021 polls despite fielding the TMC’s then incumbent MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, who had won from Singur four times in a row between 2001 and 2016 for the Congress and the TMC.
The TMC, meanwhile, accused Modi of systematically depriving Bengal.
“Is Bengal not one of the states of India? Why has the Centre stopped funding social welfare projects such as housing for the poor or the building of roads in Bengal? Having deprived our people, Modi is now making tall statements,” TMC state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said.
PM Modi launched or laid foundation stones of various development projects worth more than ₹830 crore, including an extended port gate system at Hooghly district’s Balagarh. He virtually launched an electric catamaran in the Hooghly river in Kolkata, inaugurated the Jayrambati–Barogopinathpur–Maynapur railway line and a train service between Maynapur and Jayrambati. He also virtually flagged off three new Amrit Bharat Express trains connecting Kolkata to Delhi, Varanasi and Chennai.
“Bengal can be turned into a big manufacturing hub. If we can build an ecosystem, then employment will be generated. Kolkata Port, for example, set a new record in cargo handling last year. It is my dream to see West Bengal lead the way,” the PM said.
