TMC to sharpen Bengali satisfaction pitch at Martyrs’ Day rally amid migrant row

The TMC has accused the BJP of resorting to “linguistic othering” and has sought to reignite the emotional chord of regional id that helped it counter the BJP’s Hindutva wave in the course of the 2021 meeting polls.

“Dignity, id, and survival are at stake. BJP is out to erase Bengali self-respect underneath the garb of nationalism. Our combat isn’t just electoral-it’s existential,” mentioned a TMC MP.

The BJP, then again, has pushed again strongly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, throughout his current rally in Durgapur, accused the TMC of selling infiltration and endangering nationwide safety for vote-bank politics.

“It’s the BJP that really protects Bengali ‘ashmita’,” Modi had mentioned, as he projected the BJP as the one credible different in Bengal.

Responding to the TMC’s allegations over migrant harassment, BJP leaders have claimed that the confusion stems from the TMC’s failure to streamline citizenship and voter documentation.

“They’re blaming others to cover their incompetence,” mentioned a Bengal BJP chief.

The Martyrs’ Day rally, noticed yearly on 21 July, commemorates the killing of 13 youth activists in police firing in 1993 when Mamata Banerjee, then a fiery Youth Congress chief, led a march to the state secretariat demanding that voter ID playing cards be made the only real doc for franchise. Through the years, the rally has morphed into the largest present of political power by the TMC, usually setting the tone for upcoming battles.

This yr’s rally, occasion insiders say, will probably be a launch pad for a high-voltage marketing campaign main as much as the 2026 meeting polls, the place the TMC plans to weaponise each Bengali satisfaction and the perceived humiliation of its folks throughout state borders.