Diamond Harbour MP and Trinamul youth wing chief Abhishek Banerjee who launched his party’s poll campaign from Ghatal in West Midnapore on Saturday, accused the Election Commission of splitting polling dates in the two Midnapores to benefit “one person”, indicating his bête noire Suvendu Adhikari.

“In the two Midnapores, polling has been split in two phases for the benefit of one person,” said Abhishek, hinting that Suvendu would be able to marshal his forces better across the span of days.

However, Abhishek added that Trinamul would win all 31 Assembly seats in the twin districts even if voting was held in 31 phases. “We will win all 16 seats in East Midnapore and 15 in West Midnapore. We will win 250 seats in the state,” Abhishek said to loud cheers from the 50,000-odd crowd.

Devoting over five minutes of his 15-minute speech to Suvendu without naming him, the Trinamul MP urged the people to teach the “traitor” a lesson by defeating the BJP in Ghatal and elsewhere.

“They (BJP) may have central forces and bohiragawto (outsiders) behind them, but we have Kanyasree and Yuvasree (chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet projects),” he said, urging the crowd to cheer for Trinamul’s “Bengal’s daughter” slogan for Mamata.

“I will never lose my spine, unlike some...Midnapore is not their fiefdom, it is of the people. Those trying to sell it to Delhi will disappear from the scene following (their loss in) this election,” he said.

A 4.5km march followed, which he called his “most important political roadshow”.

Trinamul is popular in the twin districts but during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP edged past Trinamul in eight Assembly seats in West Midnapore and two in East.