Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the BJP was staring at defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and would not even be able to bag 200 seats and reasserted that the INDIA bloc would form the next government at the Centre.

“They (BJP) have realised that Modi wave is nowhere (in the country)… so they have now decreased the target.... They will not be able to cross the 200 mark, leave alone 400 seats,” the Trinamool Congress chairperson told an election rally on the Penepukur ground in Hooghly’s Kamarpur.

While claiming that the INDIA bloc would form the next government, she said Trinamool would be one of its main constituents from Bengal. Urging people to vote for her party, Mamata asked them to punish Trinamool leaders if they did anything wrong.

Mamata spoke at two back-to-back election rallies in Hooghly’s Kamarpukur and Bankura’s Bishnupur in support of Trinamool candidates Mitali Bag and Sujata Mondal, respectively.

The chief minister related the expected plunge in the BJP’s seats to Union home minister Amit Shah’s recent remark that people should “invest in the share market”.

In response to the recent fall in the share market, Shah said in an interview with a TV channel earlier this week that stock market movements should not be directly linked to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. He, however, admitted that “some rumours” might have fuelled the volatility but expected a turnaround after the June 4 publication of the results.

“Mamata tried to hint that the share market nosedived apprehending the BJP’s defeat and people like Amit Shah were trying to revive it by advising people to invest,” said a Trinamool leader in Hooghly.

Hitting out at Shah, the chief minister said the BJP leader’s advice to invest in the share market violated the model code of conduct.

“He (Amit Shah) cannot speak such words during the elections. He has no such right.... It is the prerogative of individuals where to invest. I don’t understand all these things. But Amit Shah advised people out of compulsion apprehending the imminent defeat of the BJP,” Mamata said.

At both the rallies, Mamata said the BJP in Bengal had hatched a conspiracy like the Sandeshkhali episode to win the polls but that had failed.

“People of Bengal will forever keep in mind the conspiracy hatched by the BJP in Sandeshkhali,” she said and warned the people and police about the saffron camp’s attempt at inciting communal tension.

Earlier on Saturday, Mamata said in the current elections, people would “avenge” the injustice meted out to Bengal by the Centre by holding up funds.

“It is a sin to block the funds earmarked for the development of the poor but continue splurging money on spreading propaganda. Bengal will avenge this injustice by BJP,” she said in a post on her X handle.