2 min readKolkataApr 22, 2026 04:33 AM IST
The final hours of campaigning for the first phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal on Tuesday heated up, with party leaders targeting rivals, even resorting to name-calling.
Campaigning in Chandipur, which will vote on April 23 along with 152 constituencies in the first phase, senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah targeted TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee over former party MLA’s plan to construct a Babri-like mosque in Murshidabad and said, “Mamata Didi ko dekho, apne chele Humayun Kabir se Bengal mein Babri Masjid banana chahti hai. Ei Didi, aankh khol, kaan khol kar sunlo. Ye Bengal Bharat mein hai. Koi Kabir Fabir yahan par Babri Masjid nahin banane denge hum (Look at Mamata Didi. She wants to get Babri Masjid constructed in Bengal by her disciple Humayun Kabir. Didi listen with your ears and eyes open. Bengal is in India, and we will not let any Kabir build a Babri mosque in Bengal).” He also accused CM Mamata Banerjee of shielding “infiltrators”.
The TMC hit back with party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accusing the Union Home Minister of “reducing a respected leader to a taunt”.
Recalling PM Narendra Modi’s remark in 2021, Abhishek wrote on X, “The Prime Minister and the Home Minister speak endlessly about Nari Shakti… But their conduct tells a different story. The PM publicly mocks a three-time elected woman CM with ‘Didi O Didi,’ delivered with visible condescension. The Home Minister echoes it with ‘Ei Didi’…”
Earlier, Abhishek had called Shah a “gunda (goon)” and challenged him to stay in West Bengal after May 4, when the election results would be declared.
On Tuesday, Shah addressed four rallies – from Kurseong in Darjeeling Hills in the north to Kulti, Salboni, and Chandipur in the south. In Kurseong, he promised that the BJP government will resolve the “Gorkha issues”.
Meanwhile, campaigning for the TMC in Haldia, CM Mamata Banerjee accused probe agencies of working like puppets for the Central government.
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In Barjora, Abhishek Banerjee accusing the BJP of “humiliating” Bengalis.
