Rahul Gandhi has intensified Congress’s campaign in West Bengal by accusing Mamata Banerjee of avoiding a direct political confrontation with the BJP, arguing that the absence of central agency action against the Trinamool Congress chief shows where the real contest lies.Addressing a poll rally at Serampore in Hooghly district on Saturday, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the Narendra Modi government had filed several cases against him, while Banerjee had not faced the same scrutiny. Gandhi referred to his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate for 55 hours over five consecutive days and asked why the West Bengal chief minister had not been interrogated in a comparable manner.
“For how many hours was Mamata Banerjee interrogated?” Gandhi asked, linking the issue to what he described as the BJP’s selective use of investigative pressure. He claimed there was no Enforcement Directorate or Central Bureau of Investigation probe against Banerjee personally because she did not “directly” fight the BJP.
The remarks marked one of Gandhi’s strongest attacks on Banerjee during the West Bengal Assembly election campaign, sharpening tensions between two parties that have at times shared opposition platforms against the BJP at the national level. Congress is seeking to present itself as the only ideological challenger to the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, while Trinamool is framing the election as a straight contest between Banerjee and the BJP’s central leadership.
Gandhi accused both Modi and Banerjee of pursuing power while failing to deliver jobs, clean governance and institutional accountability. He said Bengal had been weakened by unemployment, corruption allegations and political violence, and charged the Trinamool government with opening political space for the BJP by failing to address public grievances.
His comments came ahead of the second phase of polling in West Bengal on April 29, after a high-turnout first phase on April 23. The votes are scheduled to be counted on May 4. With the campaign entering its final stretch, the state’s political contest has become increasingly combative, with the BJP, Trinamool and Congress-Left alliance attempting to define the anti-incumbency and anti-BJP space in sharply different ways.
Trinamool reacted strongly to Gandhi’s allegations. Senior party leader Shashi Panja rejected his charge as irresponsible and argued that Trinamool leaders and associates had faced sustained pressure from central agencies during the election period. Party leaders pointed to raids, arrests and questioning involving figures linked to the ruling party and its campaign ecosystem as evidence that Trinamool had not been spared by the Union government.
The Trinamool response also reflected its broader campaign line that Congress has weakened as an electoral force in several states and cannot claim sole ownership of opposition politics. Banerjee’s party has repeatedly argued that it has defeated the BJP in Bengal and remains the principal obstacle to the party’s expansion in the state.
Gandhi’s intervention nonetheless underlined a widening fault line within opposition politics. The Congress and Trinamool are both opposed to the BJP at the national level, but their rivalry in Bengal has limited the prospects of a broader anti-BJP consolidation. Congress has aligned with the Left in the state, while Trinamool is contesting under Banerjee’s leadership with support from several regional leaders outside Bengal.
The BJP has sought to capitalise on this division, projecting itself as the main alternative after 15 years of Trinamool rule. Its campaign has focused on governance, law and order, corruption allegations, border issues, citizenship and women’s safety. Trinamool, in turn, has accused the BJP of using central institutions and identity politics to destabilise Bengal’s elected government.
Gandhi’s reference to his own Enforcement Directorate questioning stems from the National Herald case, in which he was questioned for five days in 2022. Congress has consistently described the action as politically driven, while the BJP has argued that investigative agencies operate within the law.
Banerjee has also faced political pressure over corruption allegations involving Trinamool leaders, including cases linked to recruitment, cattle smuggling, coal smuggling and financial irregularities. Several party figures have been questioned or arrested over the years, though Gandhi’s charge focused specifically on the absence of a direct probe against the chief minister.
The Congress leader’s Serampore speech was aimed at repositioning his party in a state where it once had deep organisational roots but has lost ground to Trinamool and the BJP. By framing the election as an ideological contest rather than a regional power struggle, Gandhi sought to appeal to voters uneasy with both the BJP’s centralised politics and Trinamool’s long incumbency.