LoP Suvendu Adhikari calls West Bengal a ‘Bengali Hindu homeland’

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday, January 2, 2026, blamed the Trinamool Congress for communal flare-ups in West Bengal’s Malda and Murshidabad last year and called West Bengal the ‘Bengali Hindu homeland’.

“Looting Hindu houses and shops in Mothabari, burning houses in Dhulian and Samserganj, for whom did you have to do such things? This needs to stop, change needs to come. We want peace in West Bengal,” Mr. Adhikari, referring to the ruling dispensation, said at a rally in Malda on Friday.

He drew parallels between the recent lynching of Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh and the lynching of father-son duo Hargobind Das and Chandan Das in Murshidabad’s Jafrabad in April. The LoP alleged that religious activities like Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Durga Puja, Kali Puja and Jagaddhatri Puja were hampered due to lack of permissions from the ruling Trinamool government.

Mr. Adhikari promised that once the BJP comes to power, the party will provide 200 days of employment to the people. These remarks counter the Trinamool Congress’s claim that the West Bengal government will provide 100 days of employment under Karmashree Prakalpa, a job guarantee scheme. After MGNREGA was stopped in West Bengal in April 2022, the West Bengal government launched its own job guarantee scheme.

LOP had approached the Calcutta High Court to get permission for the rally after the police denied permission to hold the rally. Mr. Adhikari said he had approached the Supreme Court 104 times to hold a rally.

During the day, State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya alleged that the Trinamool Congress government had withdrawn funds from various government schemes. Mr. Bhattacharya said the money raised from the midday meal program was used to compensate victims of the Bogtui violence.

West Bengal BJP chief said that SIR was conducted by a constitutional body and the process was carried out in 12 states, but the ruling party in the state was facing problems in West Bengal. Mr. Bhattacharya said the BJP’s SIR help desks were hacked and did not provide space to opposition parties despite Trinamool’s claims.