The Trinamul Congress leadership has asked its units in three Muslim-dominated districts of Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur to guard against the Congress’s resurgence in view of the grand old party’s win in Karnataka and the recent Sagardighi bypoll victory.

“We are happy that the BJP was routed in Karnataka but there is no reason for us to celebrate the victory of the Congress as the party’s Bengal unit works as a B-team of the BJP in trying to defeat us here. We have asked our leaders to do the needful to ensure that the Congress does not find its political space here as it would certainly try to build something here on the momentum of the Karnataka mandate,” said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.

In Murshidabad, a senior Trinamul leader has said the party was already asked to increase political activities and bring forward new faces, especially those who are influential locally.

“A special instruction came to us on Saturday evening. We have been asked to find out prominent minority faces in various areas. We have been asked to honour them at our party programmes. Leaders want to see more political activities in our districts,” said a Trinamul district vice-president in Murshidabad.

“We have been asked to campaign that the Congress in Karnataka is very different from that in Bengal,” he added.

Trinamul leaders have also been asked not to celebrate the Karnataka victory as it will yield an advantage to the Congress.

Neither chief minister Mamata Banerjee nor Trinamul national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee gave credit to the Congress for defeating the BJP in the southern state. They saluted the people of Karnatakaand related the result to that of the Bengal Assembly polls of 2021.

Abhishek said the campaign of “No vote to BJP” (initiated by the non-mainstream Left-liberal camp) of Bengal in 2021 succeeded in Karnataka in 2023 and the BJP would be routed completely in the general election next year.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress state president, has already declared war against Trinamul, riding a wave of the Karnataka mandate. “Karnataka results have proved that the Congress is the only power that can weed out the BJP from the country. I can assure you that Trinamul would simply evaporate,” he said on Saturday.

In Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts, Congress leaders have drawn up plans for a political campaign to revive its support base.

“A number of Trinamul leaders, especially those in rural pockets, are in contact with us. We expect a major joining event at the end of this month in the presence of our state president,” said a Congress leader in Malda.

A source in Trinamul said the Karnataka result had caused some shakiness in the ruling party, particularly in those three districts. Out of 43 Assembly seats (six Lok Sabha seats) in those three districts, Trinamul won 35 in 2021, leaving none for the Congress.

Trinamul’s worry regarding the minority support base has been palpable since its “shock” defeat in the Sagardighi Assembly bypoll in a seat with 65 per cent minority votes. Congress candidate Bairon Biswas, backed by the Left, won the by-poll by a margin of 22,986 votes.