TMC THREATENS T0 STOP DOLES AND FUNDS IN AREAS THAT SUPPORTED BJP

The heat and dust of the just-concluded general elections may have settled across most of India, but West Bengal-which saw the Trinamool Congress defy all predictions and increase its seats to 29 while the BJP's tally dwindled to 12 and the Congress to one is still grappling with post-poll violence.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Along with that, with a clear aim to further decimate the BJP's support base in the lead-up to the 2026 Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress leaders are publicly holding out threats to stop benefits of government schemes to areas which supported the BJP.

Within days of the Lok Sabha election results being declared on 4 June, leader after leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), from north Bengal to south, is explicitly saying that the seats and areas which supported arch-rival Bharatiya Janata Party, will have to "pay a price”.

Udayan Guha, who is the TMC strongman in north Bengal, where the BJP retained six out of seven seats, has proclaimed that developmental funds from Nabanna (state secretariat) will not go to this region.

Addressing a party programme in Dinhata to felicitate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, TMC's winning candidate in Cooch Behar, who bested former Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik, Guha was heard saying: "Why should we give funds when the people here are repeatedly voting for the bohiragotos (outsiders)?" Guha, ironically, is the North Bengal Development Minister in Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet.

Kunal Ghosh, the TMC spokesperson, spoke on the same lines in Medinipur in south Bengal which had also rebuffed the party.