A civil society group close to the ruling Trinamool Congress on Friday gave a call to workers in various central government departments and public sector undertakings to launch a united movement against the Narendra Modi government over its privatisation agenda, which would purportedly affect their rights.

At a programme organised under the banner of the Desh Banchao Ganamancha in Calcutta, Purnendu Basu, a former Bengal minister and a senior leader of the civil society group, announced plans to build a movement with workers from the railways, BSNL, ports and ordnance factories and various other central government undertakings.

While announcing the organisation’s plans to hold a mega convention of employees of those organisations, Basu made it a point to underscore the TMC’s pet peeve of how New Delhi was denying Bengal its legitimate dues.

“The Centre is depriving Bengal of funds under various schemes like the MGNREGA, which establishes its anti-people character.... Besides, the Union government has been attempting to close down PSUs and shift central government units from Bengal, causing widespread suffering to thousands of workers. Contractual workers employed in these sectors have been denied their rights and are the worst sufferers,” said Basu.

TMC Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen was also present at the event during which some representatives of contractual workers from central government departments threatened to take their movement to
New Delhi.

A source in the TMC said while the platform was apolitical, organising workers from PSUs and various central government departments would help the party spin a new narrative of deprivation against the Modi government ahead of the 2026
Assembly elections.

Several TMC leaders believe that highlighting the issue of central deprivation, such as withholding MGNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana funds, helped Mamata Banerjee position herself as a defender of ordinary people ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP bagged 12 out of 42 seats in the state, six short of its tally five years ago.

Sambhunath Dey, a worker in the metro railways, claimed that the central government was trying to privatise all new metro projects, such as the Howrah-Sealdah (Green Line).

“When our chief minister Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister, she announced the metro railways as the 17th zone of Indian Railways. Now, the Union government is trying to privatise the metro,” Dey said.