Chief minister Mamata Banerjee played the regional card in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts, which together have 14 Assembly seats, on Tuesday.

Elections will be held in both the districts on April 10.

Mamata, in three rallies in Kalchini (Alipurduar) and Mathabhanga and Mekhliganj (Cooch Behar), tried to prove the saffron brigade makes “hollow promises” and is using central government machinery during polls.

In Mathabhanga, a seat with a concentration of Rajbanshis, Mamata wielded large printouts of an RTI reply to prove the Narendra Modi government did not plan to form a Narayani regiment (after the royal troops of erstwhile Cooch Behar royalty) in the central armed police forces.

Her move came shortly after Union home minister Amit Shah in Cooch Behar on April 2 asserted they decided to raise a such a regiment.

Last year, Udayranjan Roy Prodhani, an assistant professor of Dhubri Law College in Assam and a resident of Gauripur, had written to the Centre asking whether it had any plans to raise such a regiment.

“The central government, in its reply, said it does not have any such plans. It proves the BJP has made an empty promise to people of Cooch Behar unlike us...,” said Mamata.

She made Bangshibadan Burman, a leader of the Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ Association (GCPA) who is her ally — the other lobby of the association is with the BJP — and Girindra Nath Burman, the Trinamul candidate of Mathabhanga seat, to stand with the printouts on stage. Her party leaders also got an “apolitical” youth on stage, who read out the query and reply.

Mamata also brought up the Centre’s controversial citizenship matrix. “The BJP wants to implement NRC here…. we will never let them do it. All of us have seen how people have suffered in Assam. All of those who reside here are Indian residents,” she said.

An observer said many families in Cooch Behar and Alipurduar had family and friends in Assam who have not made it to the NRC.

Mamata accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing its power. “They are asking the central forces to persuade people to vote BJP..... such tactics will not work in Bengal,” she said.

Back in 2016 Assembly elections, Trinamul had managed win in 12 of 14 seats.

However, in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won both Alipurduar and Cooch Behar parliamentary seats and managed to secure a lead in 12 Assembly segments.

Later in the afternoon, Mamata joined in a road show in Cooch Behar. After returning from Mekhliganj, she moved through a stretch of the town, covering around 1.5km in her wheelchair. Hundreds of party workers and some prominent leaders joined her.