Mamata Banerjee Warned After BJP’s Delhi Win
New Delhi:
Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, boosted by his party’s remarkable win in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election – fired a warning at Mamata Banerjee on Saturday evening – ‘look out, you’re next’.
Speaking to reporters after the BJP’s win was confirmed, Mr Adhikari exulted, “Delhi ki jeet hamari hain… 2026 mein Bengal ki baari‘”, or ‘We have won Delhi, in 2026 it’s Bengal’s turn’.
Another senior Bengal BJP leader, Sukanta Majumdar, served up a similar warning, declaring, “People of Bengal will also vote for the BJP… in the next Assembly election…”
Both also thanked the Bengali community in Delhi for the BJP’s win, although it is unclear (at this time) if they voted for the saffron party or for Aam Aadmi Party, which was backed by Ms Banerjee.
#WATCH | #DelhiElectionResults | West Bengal LoP and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari says, “Delhi ki jeet hamari hai…2026 mein Bengal ki baari hai…” pic.twitter.com/fVVzS2Ypqj
— ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2025
The BJP has routed the AAP in Delhi, winning 48 of 70 Assembly seats, a dramatic improvement from the eight it won in the 2020 election and three in the 2015. Defeat for the AAP today was compounded by party boss Arvind Kejriwal and his aide, Manish Sisodia, losing their individual contests.
READ | Arvind Kejriwal Loses New Delhi Seat As AAP Is Routed
BJP’s Bengal Focus
The Bengal BJP leaders’ warnings come ahead of the Bengal election in March-April next year and underlines the BJP’s determination to break Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress, which has, over the past decade, been a thorn in the side of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP.
Ms Banerjee has led the Trinamool to victory over Prime Minister Modi and the BJP in three consecutive major elections – the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and the 2021 Bengal election. The Trinamool also registered a near-clean sweep BJP in the 2021 Kolkata local body polls.
In the 2019 federal election, the Trinamool eked out a four-seat win over the BJP. Five years later she flexed her political muscles and left the saffron party further behind, winning 29 seats to open a 17-seat margin. In between, the BJP was thumped in the 2021 state election for good measure.
But each win was followed by fierce squabbling between the two parties, with allegations of orchestrating post-poll violence – gunfights, mob killings, and crude bomb attacks that killed party workers and supporters from both sides – and adding to the bad blood.
That enmity increased as the two went head-to-head over controversies to have hit Ms Banerjee’s government, including the rape and murder of a young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital in August last year and claims of sexual assault in Sandeshkhali by local Trinamool leader Sheikh Shahjahan.
Much of the BJP’s recent attacks on Ms Banerjee have been led by Mr Adhikari, who was the Chief Minister’s confidante before his shock switch in December 2020, weeks before the last state poll.
READ | In Sandeshkhali, Suvendu Adhikari’s “Revenge” Warning To Mamata
On the Sandeshkhali scandal, for example, last month Mr Adhikari said, “… the BJP will send you to jail for making these women go to jail in false cases. We will take revenge, with interest.”
On Mamata Banerjee’s Support Of AAP
The jabs at Ms Banerjee are also significant because the Trinamool had backed the AAP – in a move that raised tension within the INDIA bloc after it and the Congress failed to agree seat-share deal.
That wound up, potentially, allowing the BJP to canter to victory after the AAP lost multiple seats due to Congress candidates splitting votes.
NDTV Explains | How AAP-Congress Feud Split Opposition Votes In Delhi Poll
However, formed to defeat the BJP in state and central elections, the INDIA grouping has stuttered and flattered to impress since it was formed in June 2023. Repeated defeats in elections led to questions over the Congress’ leadership of the bloc, and Ms Banerjee has emerged as a possible replacement.
Ms Banerjee rising to lead the INDIA bloc is not something the BJP will favour, for not only will it make the task of winning the 2026 Bengal election that much harder, it will also complicate its 2029 prep.
With input from agencies
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