In her election meetings she complained bitterly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not take any action against Pakistan for threatening to attack Kolkata. At least she felt that the Prime Minister could have ordered an investigation against the Pakistan defence minister on why he said this. For this "inaction", Mamata demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister. Even her favourite nephew Abhishek Banerjee said that since Mr Modi did not act, once elected to power, Banerjee junior would enter Pakistan and capture Khawaja Asif. After such outburst nobody can complain that the Trinamool Congress leaders are not nationalists, though how many votes will it bring is a different issue.

Mamata's ire was most vitriolic when it came to Home Minister Amit Shah. According to the TMC supremo Shah used ED, CII, NIA and other agencies to force her supporters to side with BJP. She used choicest Bengali slang to call him names. Among many reasons for getting upset with Shah are his release of "charge sheet" against Mamata which contained her pretensions of getting hurt during 2021 election and many instances of mis-governances. But most disturbing for TMC perhaps is Shah's decision to stay in West Bengal for 15 days during the election. Presence of Shah means a strategically planned BJP attack on TMC. For the Trinamool supremo the constant criticism hurled at most meetings is that BJP states do not allow its residents to eat fish or meat. Such preposterous allegations have turned some BJP leaders in the state defensive. So much so that they are giving interview over their lunch break displaying prominently their non-vegetarian items. Even it was said that the BJP chief minister postelection would be pure fish eater. The debate over food, some feel, gives advantage to TMC since food is a region's identity. Point missed in such low level arguments is the fact that BJP-ruled Tripura consumes 27.8 kg per capita against the national average of 8.7 kg. West Bengal figures around the national average level. The national capital Delhi boasts of the largest fish market in the country. The wholesale market at Gazipur, at the border of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh receives supply from all corners of the country, including hilsa fish imported from Bangladesh. Clearly, this allegation of Mamata is nothing but a figment of her imagination. (Even this writer has consumed prawns at the residence of former MP Mamata Banerjee at her residence in Delhi.) Strangely, there are media outlets to circulate this fiction across the state so as to create panic among fish-eating voters in West Bengal.

Prime Minister Modi in his speech at Haldia in Midnapore district mentioned how West Bengal despite consuming fish failed to increase fish production as did states like Bihar, Assam and Odisha. The state has not implemented the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), launched in September 2020. The state thus has missed the "Blue Revolution" in India's fisheries sector and did not take advantage of an investment of Rs 20,050 crore, aimed to boost fish production, modernize infrastructure, reduce post-harvest losses, and improve fishers' livelihoods. Mamata responded within few hours that West Bengal produced all fish it consumed through her schemes winking at the question of rise in fish production.

The primary issue that hurts Mamata Banerjee's prospect in 2026 assembly election is the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of 2025-26 and deletion of around 90 lakh names. Mamata and her nephew feel that since in 2024 electoral rolls which elected Narendra Modi for the third time was faulty requiring SIR, the BJP government should resign and seek re-election. Mamata attempted desperately to stop SIR since when the same was announced first for Bihar. She had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court several times, but the SIR process was not stopped. So bitter is she that even after filing her nomination she claimed that she would fight for restoration of voting rights of these deleted voters. It is believed that in West Bengal since the days of the Left rule of Jyoti Basu, false votes by the ruling party had been rampant. SIR is an attack on this nearly 50-year long practice. Predictably, Mamata Banerjee is upset.

In a desperate attempt to stall the voter list purification drive Mamata Banerjee had time and again instigated the minority community to agitate against the Election Commission. She even said that since she was in power the minorities were not taking up arms against the majority community, shocking claim of a Constitutional authority. A recent incident in the district of Malda, a district with porous border with Bangladesh, perhaps resulted from such instigation. A huge section of the local population gathered and kept the judicial officers who had been adjudicating on the doubtful list of voters, barricaded inside the BDO office for more than eight hours. Investigation by NIA revealed that there had been quiet and persistent efforts at villages to assemble such a crowd in the spot. While direct involvement of TMC in the incident would be subject to investigation, the speeches of Mamata Banerjee are instances of her tacit encouragement to such lawlessness by a section of people. After the sharp reaction of the Chief Justice of India over the incident, Mamata dissociated herself from this and tried to blame her opponents first BJP and next Congress.

The decision of the Election Commission to remove all temporary police staff from electioneering and engaging central forces is a big blow. The number of central forces committed is more than three times the strength of West Bengal's police force (2.40 lakh against 80 thousand). Mamata Banerjee says in her campaign speeches that the central forces are a threat to the safety of women in West Bengal. She suggested that women should carry brooms and use liberally on the force in case of threat. Decision to engage a new vendor for CC cameras at booths too found Mamata bitter.

The problem of Mamata Banerjee is that she had administered the state by providing some measly doles to women and recently to the unemployed. The trick had worked in 2021 election but seemed to have lost favour in 2026. Still a constant effort of Mamata and TMC is to remind voters of the distribution of money. Message was repeated that those who would not vote for TMC would not receive the fund after election.

Signs from her campaign are clear that the street fighter in her is now clueless of how to recover the fast sinking electoral situation.

• Sugato Hazra is a political analyst.