West Bengal is suffering due to TMC misrule: PM Modi ahead of Durgapur rally

Kolkata: Hours before his visit to West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government over misrule.

On Friday, Modi is set to address a BJP rally in Durgapur and unveil key infrastructure projects, in a politically charged backdrop marked by TMC's outcry over alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in several BJP-ruled states.

West Bengal is suffering due to TMC misrule. People are seeing the BJP with hope and are convinced that only the BJP can deliver on development. Tomorrow, 18th July, will be addressing a @BJP4Bengal rally in Durgapur. Do join!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 17, 2025

This will be Modi's first visit to the state after Samik Bhattacharya was appointed the new West Bengal BJP president earlier this month. The Prime Minister will arrive in Durgapur from Bihar and first participate in a government programme, before addressing a public rally organised by the party, a senior state BJP leader said.

With West Bengal slated to go to the polls in April-May 2026, the visit is being seen as a high-voltage political manoeuvre by the BJP to consolidate its position in the state.

It comes just days before Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's annual Martyrs' Day rally on July 21, where she is expected to issue a clarion call to her party workers ahead of the polls.

In a significant political backdrop to the Prime Minister's visit, West Bengal is witnessing a wave of protests and strong political rhetoric over the detention and alleged profiling of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-governed states, including Assam, Odisha, Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Alleging that Bengalis are being routinely targeted and labelled as "illegal Bangladeshis", Banerjee and the TMC have sharpened their Bengali identity pitch, a strategy that proved electorally effective during the 2021 assembly polls in blunting the BJP's Hindutva narrative.

"First, they snatch away livelihoods by denying jobs to Bengalis, and then they brand them as Bangladeshis. What kind of governance is this?" Banerjee asked during a government programme in New Town on Thursday, indirectly targeting the saffron party.

The TMC leadership has accused the BJP of "criminalising poverty and linguistic profiling" and using national security as a tool to harass economically vulnerable migrant workers, turning what began as scattered reports of harassment into a full-blown political flashpoint in West Bengal.

Reacting sharply, BJP leader Rahul Sinha blamed the TMC government for the confusion over citizenship documentation.

"The lines between real citizens and those using forged documents have become increasingly blurred. Thousands of infiltrators from Bangladesh have created fake papers identifying them as Bengal residents and are now roaming across the country as Indians," he told PTI.

As the war of words escalates, BJP's West Bengal unit expects the Prime Minister to use the Durgapur platform to sharpen the party's counter-narrative and project the Centre's development agenda in contrast to what the party calls the TMC's politics of appeasement and identity mobilisation.

On the development front, the Prime Minister will launch a slew of development projects worth over Rs 5,000 crore.

He will lay the foundation stone for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (BPCL) Rs 1,950-crore City Gas Distribution project in Bankura and Purulia districts.

He will also dedicate to the nation the 132-km Durgapur-Kolkata section of the Durgapur-Haldia Natural Gas Pipeline, part of the ambitious Jagdishpur-Haldia and Bokaro-Dhamra (PM Urja Ganga) project -- built at Rs 1,190 crore.

This section, which passes through Purba Bardhaman, Hooghly, and Nadia districts, is expected to benefit lakhs of households and generate significant employment.

Furthering his government's push for cleaner energy, Modi will dedicate to the nation the Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) systems installed at the Durgapur Steel Thermal Power Station and Raghunathpur Thermal Power Station under the Damodar Valley Corporation. The Rs 1,457-crore pollution control retrofitting project is aimed at significantly improving air quality in the region.

In the railway sector, he will inaugurate the doubling of the 36-km Purulia-Kotshila rail line, built at a cost of over Rs 390 crore, which is expected to ease freight movement between industrial hubs like Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ranchi, and Kolkata.

Modi will also inaugurate two road overbridges (ROBs) at Topsi and Pandabeshwar in Paschim Bardhaman under the Setu Bharatam programme, constructed at a combined cost of over Rs 380 crore, to improve connectivity and reduce congestion at busy railway level crossings.