‘Pure illusion’: TMC counters Modi, says Mamata will return with 250 seats in 2026

Kolkata: The TMC on Friday launched a sharp counterattack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the BJP’s sweeping Bihar win has “paved the way to end jungle raj” in West Bengal, dismissing it as a “pure illusion” and asserting that Mamata Banerjee will return with a 250-seat mandate in 2026.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said Modi’s remark that “just as the Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal, the BJP’s victory will flow there too”, betrayed a “poor understanding of Bengal’s political chemistry”.

“People of Bengal have repeatedly rejected the BJP’s politics of hate. The BJP’s dream of conquering the state is an illusion, like a tortoise wanting to lie on its back. And waiting for them is the Bengal Tigress – Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh told reporters, adding, “The Bihar chemistry will