TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said that the BJP needs to be voted out of power so that the reservation rights of the people are protected.

A change is imminent at the Centre and the TMC would play a crucial role in forming the new government, Banerjee said at rallies in Salboni and Nandigram.

"The BJP is trying to snatch away the reservation rights of OBCs, STs, and SCs. Giving them a single vote is similar to giving away your rights," the TMC national general secretary said.

Banerjee said the Calcutta High Court scrapped the OBC status of several classes in the state granted since 2010, finding such reservations illegal.

He also said that the Jharkhand MP Kunar Hembram left the BJP for its "falsehood" and joined the TMC.

At another rally in Nandigram, the assembly constituency of the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Banerjee wondered what the BJP leader has delivered to the people of his seat.

Calling Adhikari a “Gaddar” (traitor), he claimed the former TMC minister joined the BJP to evade ED and CBI scrutiny.

“Suvendu Adhikari cannot be the son of this pure soil of Medinipur. This is the soil of (freedom fighter) Satish Samanta and other revolutionaries,” he said.

Banerjee alleged that Adhikari won by fraud in the 2021 assembly elections with the help of a power outage during the counting of votes.

“Despite winning by deceit, what has this traitor given to Nandigram?” Banerjee asked.

He said he knows that certain individuals did not allow people to vote in several areas of Nandigram during the 2021 assembly elections.

Warning them, he said, "The result of their action will not be good. They should be cautious. After Debangshu's win, I will come to Nandigram within a month." Banerjee was referring to Debangshu Bhattacharya, the TMC candidate in the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, under which Nandigram comes.

Despite Adhikari's actions, Mamata Banerjee did not deprive Nandigram of her government's schemes, while Adhikari’s party BJP denied the release of 100 days' wages for the past three years, he said.

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