West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is no longer merely rattled—she appears unhinged. Her latest public meltdown over the Enforcement Directorate’s raid on the residence and office of I-PAC co-founder Rishi Jain has exposed not just political insecurity, but a dangerous contempt for constitutional limits and institutional authority. What unfolded in Kolkata was unprecedented. A sitting Chief Minister stormed into premises under investigation by a central agency, accompanied by a fleet of state police, openly confronting ED officials who were legally conducting a probe under central protection. She allegedly seized documents, shouted accusations, and walked out in fury—refusing even the bare minimum courtesy of answering the media. This was not a protest. This was intimidation. Mamata Banerjee then chose to hurl direct accusations at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming that the ED raid was ordered by him. Either the Chief Minister does not understand how statutory agencies function, or she is deliberately misleading the public. The ED does not act on political whim. It functions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and under judicial oversight. To suggest that a Home Minister personally dispatches officers to raid a political consultancy firm is either ignorance or a calculated lie. The reason for her panic is obvious. I-PAC is no ordinary firm in Bengal politics. Founded by Prashant Kishor, it was the intellectual and organisational engine behind Trinamool Congress’s 2021 election victory. Its permanent Kolkata office and its close working relationship with the ruling party make the ED’s interest deeply uncomfortable for the Chief Minister. When the strategist’s office comes under scrutiny, the political leadership loses its nerve. But the ED raid is only one pressure point. Mamata Banerjee is also in open confrontation with the Election Commission of India over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Over two crore names are reportedly under verification. Deletions are possible if documentation fails. Instead of welcoming a clean-up of voter lists—a cornerstone of free and fair elections—the Chief Minister has reacted with hysteria, even turning her guns on the Chief Election Commissioner. This is not dissent. This is institutional sabotage. Why such desperation?
Because the foundations of Trinamool’s electoral dominance are shaking. For years, West Bengal has been dogged by allegations of illegal migration from Bangladesh and Myanmar, followed by the systematic creation of bogus ration cards, voter IDs, and Aadhaar documents. These allegations did not arise in a vacuum. They emerged from ground-level realities repeatedly flagged by the opposition and civil society. A rigorous voter revision threatens to dismantle an artificially inflated vote bank that sustained Trinamool’s supremacy. Add to this two decades of uninterrupted rule, rampant corruption charges, administrative fatigue, and growing Hindu consolidation across the state, and Mamata Banerjee’s anxiety becomes understandable. Her politics of appeasement is colliding with political reality. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari correctly described the Chief Minister’s conduct as unconstitutional interference in an ongoing investigation. While his own presence at the scene invites criticism, it pales in comparison to the sheer brazenness of a Chief Minister attempting to browbeat a central agency mid-operation. The difference is power, and Mamata abused it openly. The 2021 Assembly election itself was not the landslide Trinamool now pretends it was. The Congress’s withdrawal from campaigning under the pretext of COVID handed Mamata an unearned advantage. Even then, the BJP surged to over 80 seats, emerging as the principal opposition in a state where the Left once ruled for 34 years and now lies politically extinct. Post-poll defections may have reduced the BJP’s numbers, but they did not erase the verdict: Bengal is no longer Mamata’s private estate. Her current behaviour betrays the fear of an impending reckoning. When leaders sense defeat, they attack institutions. When regimes weaken, they scream “vendetta.” Mamata Banerjee’s tirade against the ED, the Election Commission, and the Union Government is not bravery—it is panic. Democracy survives on institutions, not tantrums. And when a Chief Minister starts treating constitutional bodies as enemies, it is a sign that the endgame has begun.
