Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee will attend the INDIA bloc meeting on September 30. The meet, which is set to discuss the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), will bring political rivals CPI(M) and TMC together.
In a rare show of solidarity, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) chief held talks with CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby, along with Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, over holding a meeting of the INDIA bloc. The TMC’s Mamata faction candidate withdrew from the contest after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Banerjee then extended her support to Pradhan. It has also maintained that differences within an institutional process are part of normal deliberations.
“We went to court and managed to get 32 lakh reinstated. Yet, 27 lakh names remained excluded…you removed the names of 92 lakh people in Bengal alone. And across the country, nearly 13 crore people have fallen victim to this SIR process,” she said. In West Bengal, the TMC and Congress contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections separately, while the CPI(M)-led Left Front also fought the polls on its own. She also questioned the arrest of Congress’s Nandigram by-election candidate Milan Pradhan in cases linked to the 2007 Nandigram anti-land acquisition agitation. Earlier reporting noted: INDIA bloc meeting likely to be held in Delhi on September 30: Mamata amid SIR row Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday (September 26, 2026) said that an INDIA bloc meeting is likely to be held in Delhi to discuss ECI-related issues and chart out the Opposition’s next course of action.
Banerjee said TMC was the first party to raise this issue. The Election Commission has said the revision exercise is aimed at ensuring the integrity and accuracy of electoral rolls. Earlier reporting noted: Also Read: Congress hold protests across the country seeking CEC resignations Earlier reporting noted: Addressing a rally at Serampore in Hooghly district, the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress chief said she sent a message to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and told him that the Opposition parties must sit together, amid protests against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Since then, the bloc has seen differences over electoral strategies, seat-sharing and state-level political equations.
