Mamata accuses ED of stealing TMC’s poll strategy during I-PAC raids

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Enforcement Directorate of attempting to steal the Trinamool Congress’s internal strategy during raids at I-PAC offices, alleging BJP leaders including Amit Shah benefited from the coal scam.

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that the ED’s searches at the premises of I-PAC were aimed at “stealing” the TMC’ internal strategy ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, asserting that she had done “nothing wrong” by personally reaching the raid site a day earlier.

In a sharp personal attack in the very opening stretch of her address at a rally here, Banerjee accused senior BJP leaders including “Union Home Minister Amit Shah” of benefiting from proceeds of the coal scam and claimed she could place evidence in the public domain if required.

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Addressing the rally after leading a nearly 10-km-long protest march through the heart of the city, Banerjee said she had intervened at the ED search site purely in her capacity as the TMC chairperson, not as the chief minister.

“What I did yesterday, I did as the TMC chairperson. I have done nothing illegal,” she said, referring to her unexpected arrival at the I-PAC office and the residence of its India head, Pratik Jain.

The ED on Thursday alleged that Banerjee entered Jain’s residence during the raid in a money laundering case linked to alleged coal smuggling and took away “key evidence”, including physical documents and electronic devices.

The TMC supremo said that ED officials entered the premises at 6 am while she reached there around noon.

“By then, everything could have been stolen. I first thought they had come to ask or see something. Then I realised they are taking away our party’s documents, and strategy details. That is why I rushed there,” she said.

I-PAC provides political consultancy to the TMC and looks after the party’s IT and media cell.

“If someone tries to kill me, don’t I have the right to defend myself? If my party doesn’t exist, how will I fight for the people?” the TMC chief said.

Alleging that the money trail of the coal scam ran through “traitors” in an apparent reference to ex-TMC leaders who are now with BJP, she named “a chain that included Amit Shah and Suvendu Adhikari”, warning that she possessed proof in pen drives.

“They talk about coal scam money. But who eats coal money? How it is eaten? It goes through traitors. Jagannath to Suvendu to Amit Shah, this is the chain. I have all the proof in pen drives. I will release it when the time comes,” she said.

Escalating her confrontation with the Union government, Banerjee accused central agencies of functioning as political tools of the BJP.

“All agencies have been captured,” she said, alleging that the ruling party at the Centre had “forcibly captured” power in states such as Maharashtra, Haryana and Bihar.

“Do you think you can capture Bengal too? If someone tries to hit me politically, I get politically rejuvenated and reborn,” she said, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.

Turning her guns on the Election Commission, Banerjee alleged that the BJP had “stolen” the mandate in Maharashtra with the poll panel’s help and was now attempting to replicate it in Bengal through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise by deleting genuine voters’ names.

She announced that the TMC’s “next destination” would be the Election Commission in New Delhi to oppose what she described as harassment of voters.

Mocking Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as “Vanishing Kumar”, Banerjee warned against any attempt to “make voters vanish”.

“If voters are made to vanish, I will protest. Are you a magician?” the chief minister asked.

She questioned the rationale behind summoning elderly voters for hearing. “You call 90-year-olds for verification; do you have no shame?” she said, rejecting allegations of large-scale Rohingya presence in Bengal.

“If Rohingyas were such a big issue, why was there no SIR in Assam? They enter through Assam, not Bengal,” she added.

Banerjee also condemned the alleged assault on eight TMC MPs during a protest in Delhi, contrasting it with what she called preferential treatment for BJP leaders.

“Our MPs were assaulted while protesting in Delhi, while BJP leaders get red carpet welcomes,” she said, adding that her party would not be cowed down. “You may put me in jail for a day. I will put you before the whole world,” she warned.

Lacing her speech with sharp political barbs, Banerjee challenged the BJP over the 2026 Assembly polls.

“In 2026, it will not be our fall, it will be yours. Your downfall has already begun. There will be no BJP government in Delhi,” she said, ending the rally with chants of “Jai Bangla” (hail Bengal).

The ED searches on Thursday, the agency said, were part of a probe into a 2020 case registered by the CBI into an alleged coal smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majhi alias Lala, accused of illegally excavating coal from Eastern Coalfields leasehold areas in and around Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district.