BJP leaders criticise Mamata-Congress bonhomie

Former West Bengal Chief Minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Mamata Banerjee with Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership continued to criticise and raise questions about the bonhomie between the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress party for the second consecutive day on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) and accused the former Chief Minister of joining forces in Delhi to create anarchy in the country.

BJP president Nitin Nabin made a similar charge against Ms. Banerjee during a procession in Kolkata on Monday (November 2, 2026). On Tuesday (November 3, 2026), West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and BJP leader and former Union Minister Smriti Irani criticised the coming together of the Mamata Banerjee and Congress party.

Mr. Adhikari, who participated in a ‘Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy’ march at Siliguri in North Bengal, said that the former Chief Minister was not invited to inaugurate a single Durga Puja in Kolkata and that she is going to Delhi to ally with anarchists.

The Chief Minister tried to paint most of the Opposition parties that had assembled at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on November 1 with the same brush, calling them dynasty parties and saying that they are four-generation, three-generation, and two-generation parties.

Mr. Adhikari referred to Congress as a “4G” party, referring to (Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as “3G” (Karunanidhi, M.K. Stalin and Udhayanidhi Stalin), and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav Rashtriya Janata Dal as “2G” (Mamata Banerjee-Abhishek Banerjee and Lalu Prasad-Tejashwi Yadav). He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has “no G”.

BJP leader Smriti Irani, who held a press conference in Kolkata also spoke in a similar vein accusing the Trinamool Congress of trampling democracy in the State by unleashing attacks on BJP workers and committing atrocities on women workers. “Today those political goons are joining hands with the Congress at Ramlila Maidan,” she said. Ms. Irani called Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as “perpetual prince in the waiting” and said that he is undermining the democratic institutions of the country.

WBPCC president calls for unity of Opposition parties

The remarks by the BJP leadership come at a time when speculations are rife in the political circles about a larger Opposition unity taking place in the State. West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) called on all the Opposition parties to come together, keeping their flags aside and instead using “white flags”. Only a few weeks ago, Mamata Banerjee had decided to support Congress candidates in the Nandigram by-polls after her party’s nominee withdrew candidates at the last moment.

Reacting to the signs of new political alignment emerging, State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya called Mamata Banerjee, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CPI(M) State Secretary Md. Salim to hold a procession “hand in hand”. 

Published - November 04, 2026 01:58 am IST