Mamata alleges ED raids at I-PAC office aimed at stealing TMC strategy

KOLKATA: (Jan 9) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accused the ED of acting as a political tool of the BJP to "steal" her party's internal strategy, asserting that she did nothing wrong in reaching the premises linked to I-PAC during the central agency's raids a day ago.

Addressing a rally here after a massive 10-km-long protest march, Banerjee said she had intervened at the raid site purely in her capacity as the chairperson of the Trinamool Congress and not as the CM.

"What I did yesterday, I did as the TMC chairperson. I have done nothing illegal," she said, referring to her unexpected arrival at the venue of ED's searches at I-PAC offices and the residence of its India head Pratik Jain.

I-PAC provides political consultancy to the TMC.

Banerjee alleged that the agency entered the premises early in the morning and that by the time she reached, "a lot could have already been taken away".

"You entered at 6 am; I went at 11.45 am. By then, many things might have been stolen," Banerjee said, accusing the ED of attempting to access her party's strategic data ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

Escalating her confrontation with the Centre, Banerjee claimed that "all agencies have been captured" and accused the BJP of forcibly occupying power in several states.

"You captured Maharashtra, Haryana and Bihar by force. Do you think you can capture Bengal too?" she asked, adding that any political attack only strengthens her resolve. "If someone tries to hit me politically, I get politically rejuvenated and reborn," she said.

The chief minister also trained her guns on the Election Commission, alleging that the BJP had "stolen" the mandate in Maharashtra with the poll panel's help and was now attempting to replicate it in Bengal through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by deleting genuine voters' names.

She announced that her party's "next destination" would be the Election Commission in New Delhi to oppose what she called harassment of voters during SIR.