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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday released the BJP’s “chargesheet” against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal, framing the upcoming Assembly elections as a stark choice between “fear and trust”. Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, flanked by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, Shah said the document, titled “Abhiyognama”, was being placed “on behalf of the people of Bengal” to highlight “15 years of fear, corruption and appeasement politics”. “Bengal has to choose between fear and trust,” Shah declared, launching what the BJP has termed “Jonogoner Chargesheet”. “For the last 15 years, politics of fear and corruption have been going on. Mamata Banerjee has created a new way of politics by using lies and violence to move her politics forward. The basis of TMC coming to power is lies, fear and violence. But since 2011, BJP has been fighting against this, and I believe that this time BJP will form the government in Bengal.”
Describing the Assembly elections as an inflection point, he said, “In today’s press conference, we have come with a chargesheet against the 15 years of rule by the TMC government. This chargesheet is filed against the Mamata Banerjee government on behalf of the people of Bengal, which the BJP is voicing. In a way, the people of Bengal have to decide in the coming elections whether to choose fear or to choose trust.”
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting on May 4, according to the Election Commission schedule announced earlier this month. The first phase will cover 152 constituencies, while the remaining 142 seats will go to polls in the second phase.
The BJP’s chargesheet, formally titled Abhiyognama, compiles alleged instances of corruption, misgovernance and what the party calls a “collapse of law and order” during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure. Shah said the document flags “failures” across 14 sectors, including administration, women’s safety, health, education, and what he termed the “prevalence of syndicate raj”. “For the last 15 years, a rule of fear, corruption, and appeasement politics has been prevalent in West Bengal,” he said. “The Mamata government has turned Bengal into a den for infiltrators, criminals, and the corrupt, pushing the state back by decades.” He added that instead of delivering the promised “Sonar Bangla”, the TMC had presided over a “cut money government” and “made Bengal a graveyard of industries”.
Shah insisted that the chargesheet was not just a political document but a statement of the BJP’s “commitment to people”. “We have decided to raise public issues. We will bring solutions for all the problems. We may be blamed for bringing our chargesheet but this is our commitment to people,” he said. “This election is about defeating fear and corruption.”
The BJP plans to deploy Abhiyognama as the central plank of its campaign and follow it up with its manifesto or Sankalp Patra, expected to be released in the first week of April. Shah has already made several visits to Bengal in recent weeks, joining organisational meetings, public rallies and outreach programmes, including the “Poriborton Yatra”, in an attempt to consolidate the party’s organisation at the booth level.
Casting the state polls as a test of national security, Shah repeatedly linked Bengal’s political future to border management and illegal immigration. “This election is important not just for Bengal but for the country. It is important for national security,” he said, asserting that the “security of the entire eastern region is connected to Bengal”. After the BJP formed the government in Assam, he said, “infiltration has almost ended” there, leaving West Bengal as the “only place from where infiltration takes place”. “After BJP won Assam, infiltration has stopped from there. It’s only Bengal from where infiltration takes place now,” he said. “Are infiltrators the stakeholders to decide the future of the state?”
The Union Home Minister alleged that infiltrators were being “kept as voters” at the behest of the TMC. “You have kept infiltrators as voters here. I want to say we want to throw out infiltrators from this country,” he said. “I want to state today not only these illegal migrants be thrown out of the voting list but they will be out of our country soon.”
Referring to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, Shah pointed to the unprecedented involvement of the judiciary. “SIR is happening across the entire country, yet nowhere else did judicial officers have to be deployed—only in Bengal. What is the reason for this?” he asked, in an apparent reference to the Supreme Court’s direction to place the SIR process under judicial oversight amid a tussle between the state government and the Election Commission. “Mamata Banerjee should answer this to the people of Bengal.”
He coupled this with a warning: “I want to make it clear on behalf of the BJP that we are resolved to identify and expel every single infiltrator from the country, not merely from the voter lists but from across the entire nation, and this is my party’s agenda.”
Shah also raised concerns over the Siliguri corridor, the narrow land bridge that connects the Northeast to the rest of India. “You have not helped in fencing because you want to keep infiltrators as voters. Siliguri corridor security has weakened because of your infiltration politics,” he said, arguing that the election was “for your right to live and right to freedom, to get rid of your fears, to secure the future of youth and ensure safety for women”.
In one of his sharpest attacks in recent months, Shah accused Mamata Banerjee of repeatedly playing the “victim card” in electoral contests. “Mamata Banerjee has always played the politics of the victim card,” he said. “At times, she gets her leg broken; at other times, she has her head bandaged; sometimes she falls ill; and then again, she stands before the Election Commission feigning helplessness while hurling abuses at the institution. But I have come to tell her that the people of Bengal have now thoroughly understood this politics of the victim card.”
Turning to reservations, Shah alleged that the state government had included 77 communities in the OBC category, “out of which 75 are Muslim communities”, and suggested that this amounted to communalisation of quotas. “The people of Bengal should know that Mamata Banerjee included 77 communities in the OBC category, out of which 75 are Muslim communities. Are there no other communities left? Will OBC now be decided on the basis of religion? This will not continue for long,” he said.
Shah said that there had been an “artificial demographic change” in parts of the state. “Now people are living in fear—that in our own state, we may become a minority. There is also concern about the lack of safety for women. This election is about freedom from that fear,” he said. “People have to decide ‘Bhoy’ or ‘Bharosa’.”
Painting a bleak picture of West Bengal’s economy, Shah asserted “TMC made Bengal a graveyard of industries,” alleging that syndicate raj, corruption and extortion had driven away investment and throttled growth. “TMC goons are torturing the people of Bengal. Bengalis want to get rid of fear,” he added.
He accused TMC workers of harassing citizens and creating an “atmosphere of fear”, and said Bengal had been “a victim of anarchy” for 15 years. “The Mamata government has turned Bengal into a den for infiltrators, criminals, and the corrupt,” he reiterated, adding that the BJP would “provide solutions” to what he described as the ruling party’s “tyranny”.
Projecting the BJP as the principal challenger, Shah said the party’s vote share had grown steadily over the last three elections while “Congress and the Left are wiped out here”. He cited the BJP’s “huge mandate” in states such as Maharashtra and Bihar since 2024 as evidence of its momentum nationally. “We will topple the Mamata government and ensure a clear majority in Bengal,” he said, expressing confidence that “on 6th May, BJP government will come in power”.
“This is an election for your right to live and right to freedom,” he told voters. “Getting a government which people can have faith in is only possible if we throw out this corrupt government and bring a BJP government.” The contest, as Shah framed it on Saturday, is between “fear and trust”—or, in his words, “Bhoy na Bharosa”.
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