Retired Calcutta High Court justice and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Tamluk constituency, Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Bharatiya Janta Party MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay sparked a political controversy on Friday (November 7, 2025), after he said that the Centre is not doing enough to remove Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress from power in West Bengal.
Mr. Gangopadhyay expressed his discontent over the Central BJP-led government “not wanting to change the situation in West Bengal” while he was giving interviews to local media channels
“I had hoped that Mamata Banerjee would be removed from here and that every step would be taken to that end. But I have not been able to reach this agenda, and the complete blame for this is on the central government. There are so many allegations against them [TMC leaders], but are any of them being investigated? No one is interrogated,” said Mr. Gangopadhyay.
Mr. Gangopadhyay also added that though he does not doubt the honesty of the Election Commission of India, he has however found fault in their handling of various election related issues in West Bengal.
“The Election Commission asked the West Bengal government to file an FIR and suspend four officers for faulty voter lists. Even though the ECI has spoken about it multiple times, they have taken no action against the State government. Why?” Mr. Gangopadhyay asked, raising further doubts about his faith in the central constitutional body.
Identity politics had become a major talking point during the past elections in the State, with many political factions criticising Hindi-speaking leaders trying to hold active vote campaigns in the State. Mr. Gangopadhyay has made similar allegations this time against his own party. “Hindi belt leaders cannot conduct votes here. The north Indian leaders do not understand the people and culture of West Bengal. It is an impractical idea to think that they can win elections by bringing in leaders from north India,” Mr. Gangopadhyay claimed.
His controversial comments come months before the State is set to head to Legislative Assembly elections in mid-2026, sparking political controversy and showing probable fault lines within the West Bengal BJP leadership.
Judge to politician
The former judge of the Calcutta High Court moved careers and joined the BJP before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning from the Tamluk constituency in West Bengal.
As a judge of the Calcutta High Court, he had presided over several cases involving corruption in the recruitment of State-run schools. Mr. Gangopadhyay directed an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation in more than a dozen such cases.
He was the judge in the case against West Bengal School Service Commission’s corruption in the 2016 school recruitment process. He had annulled the jobs of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in State-run schools, a judgement that was upholded in the Supreme Court, which led to job losses of thousands of people across the State and triggered protests which lasted for months.
With the former judge joining active politics, the Trinamool Congress leadership had raised questions of political bias behind the orders delivered by Mr. Gangopadhyay.
Published – November 08, 2025 12:42 am IST
