From ground zero of TMC rise, Mamata sharpens counter to Modi, pitches for industry-farm balance

Banerjee also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 1,694 government projects, worth an estimated Rs 33,551 crore, in Singur, barely a few months ahead of the state Assembly elections.

Slamming the BJP, Banerjee said, “Many people make big promises but do not keep them. My principle is that it is better to die (rather than break promises). I keep 100% promises. I don’t do jumla (rhetoric). We are not a double-engine government. We are the government of ‘ma’, ‘mati’ and ‘manush’.”

Here are the key takeaways from Banerjee’s rally in Singur:

‘Industry, agriculture to grow together’

Ten days after Modi said that poor law and order and a “syndicate tax levied on everything in Bengal” had held back the state’s industrial growth, sharpening his pitch for a “double-engine” BJP government, Banerjee hit back, asserting that “agriculture and industry will thrive together” in Singur.

The BJP has been looking to push the narrative that Singur is symbolic of the TMC’s “anti-industry” policies, while touting its own development credentials.

While laying the foundation stone of a warehouse project in Singur, Banerjee said, “We have commissioned a private industrial park in Singur over 77 acres of land where Amazon and Flipkart will set up large warehouses and generate employment for thousands of people.”

She also said: “Over and above the existing benefits of the government’s welfare schemes which Singur farmers receive, we have built an agro-industrial park over eight acres of land here at a cost of Rs 9.2 crore with an aim to generate employment… Both agriculture and industry will thrive together, but not by forcefully grabbing farmland.”

Banglar Bari amid stalled PMAY

Amid a tussle with the Centre over halted funds for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in Bengal in 2022, the TMC government had launched its own Banglar Bari scheme in 2024. On Wednesday, Banerjee announced that another 32 lakh houses would be built within the next two months in the third phase under Banglar Bari.

“One crore Bengali houses have already been built. A few days ago, I gave 12 lakh more houses. (The Central government in) Delhi has not paid a single rupee. Thirty-two lakh houses will be given in two months… I don’t want anyone to suffer. Let everyone have a roof over their heads,” the CM said.

Ever since the Centre raised allegations of corruption in the implementation of the PMAY in Bengal and stopped releasing funds under the scheme in 2022, the TMC has used its Banglar Bari scheme not only to attack the BJP for its “anti-Bengali” stance but also to tout the state government’s “self reliance”. However, the Banglar Bari scheme was launched amid the TMC government’s mounting debts, which stood at Rs 7.72 lakh crore in 2025-26.

Ghatal Master Plan

On Wednesday, Banerjee pushed for the Ghatal Master Plan, which aims to curb the devastating floods that hit Paschim Medinipur district’s low-lying regions every year.

“I have run to Ghatal many times during floods. The Damodar Valley Corporation (or DVC, which is the Central agency that oversees dams along the Damodar river) flooded Ghatal every year. I have been writing to the Centre for 10 years. They always fooled us. Now we will fool them and sanction money for the Ghatal Master Plan. Already Rs 500 crore of work has been completed. Another Rs 1,000 crore in work will be completed very soon,” Banerjee said.

By 2027, as per the plan, the height of river dams will be increased by about 50 metres, and canals and rivers will be dug up to 50 km. Besides, two pump houses, three regulators, a bridge extension and 104 new bridges will be built by the state’s Irrigation and Water Resources Department.

While thanking Banerjee for launching the master plan, actor-politician and Ghatal MP Dipak Adhikari, popularly known as Dev, said, “I have been fighting for the Ghatal Master Plan for 10 years. Nobody kept their word. Only one person kept their word and that is Mamata Banerjee.”

The conflict between the Centre and state over the DVC has been playing out for several years now, with the TMC repeatedly raising the BJP-led Centre’s “step-motherly treatment” towards Bengal and accusing the DVC of creating “man-made floods”.

TMC vs BJP over SIR

The Election Commission (EC)’s contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, currently underway in Bengal, has already become an election issue, with the BJP claiming that the exercise will root out “infiltrators” while the TMC sees it as “conspiracy” to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state.

In Singur, while threatening to fight the SIR in the courts, Banerjee said, “You are deleting names by conspiracy through SIR. Why can’t you have faith in people? How can EC delete two crore names to decide who is a voter and who is not? Remember this is a democracy, not a dictatorship or an autocracy.”

The TMC supremo also blamed the BJP for the alleged SIR-related deaths. “Bolchho jhooth, korchho loot (BJP speaks lies, engineers loot). You are standing over the bodies of so many people. We will not forgive you, you will have to answer who is responsible for these deaths and we won’t let you go scot free,” she said.

Language war

Banerjee also targeted the Centre over the Bengali language, claiming that it was given “classical language” status under pressure from the TMC. “You awarded that status to all classical languages, except Bengali. I sent five sacks of books to Delhi as evidence stating that Bangla should have received that status long ago. You included Bangla only because we forced you to. Neither you nor your government had done it initially. I had to build research teams to get you to do it,” she said.

The CM also raised recent cases of alleged violence against Bengali speakers, particularly in BJP-ruled states. “You thrash Bengali-speaking people in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We don’t reciprocate that in Bengal,” she said.

This line of attack is a continuation of the TMC’s “Bhasha Andolan (language movement)”, launched by Banerjee last July after she accused the BJP of allegedly unleashing “linguistic terrorism” against Bengalis.