Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has set his party the target of winning 40 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats next year.

Abhishek, nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, told a gathering of around 2,000 booth-level party workers at Murshidabad’s Bhagabangola late on Saturday that a comprehensive victory was needed to stop the BJP from blocking funds meant for the state.

“We have to set a target to win 40 (Lok Sabha) seats. If the booth presidents give it their all, we can certainly meet this target. You will have to ensure victory in all three Lok sabha seats of Murshidabad,” Abhishek said.

The Trinamul leader rued not having “34-35 MPs”, which would have prevented the “deprivation” of Bengal.

“We won 34 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and no one dared to freeze our funds. In 2019, we could win only 22 seats. Had there been 34-35 MPs from our party, the BJP-led central government would not have had the courage to block our funds,” said the Diamond Harbour MP.

If achieved, it would almost certainly make Trinamul the third largest party in the Lower House after the BJP and the Congress. With 22 Lok Sabha seats, Trinamul is currently the fourth largest party, after the BJP, Congress and the DMK. Both Houses taken together, Trinamul is the third largest party in Parliament.

In 2019, when Mamata had set a target of “42 out of 42” seats, Trinamul had faced a heavy electoral setback with the BJP pocketing an unprecedented 18 seats, leaving the Bengal ruling party with only 22. The Congress had won two seats.

Abhishek’s latest target came against the backdrop of Union home minister Amit Shah setting a goal of 35 seats for the BJP.

Given the steady electoral decay suffered by the BJP in Bengal since the Assembly elections of 2021, Shah’s target — even according to BJP insiders — is being seen as “audaciously, absurdly ambitious”.