With seven months still to go before assembly elections in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared that her Trinamool Congress (TMC) will increase its tally of seats, a rare public prediction from the party chief.

Banerjee, usually cautious about making numerical forecasts, told a student wing rally on Thursday that TMC would win more seats than it did in 2021, when it secured 215 of the 292 contested seats. “Remember, in the next election your seats will increase. The reason is we deliver development and we will continue to do so,” she said.

Her nephew and party’s second-in-command, Abhishek Banerjee, made a similar assertion at the same event, claiming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would struggle to cross 50 seats. The BJP had won 77 seats in 2021 but its strength has since declined following defections and bypoll defeats, leaving TMC with 219 seats in the 294-member house.

Party strategists say Banerjee’s unusual prediction is aimed at projecting confidence, energising TMC’s grassroots network, and unsettling rivals. Senior leaders argue the government’s extensive welfare schemes, particularly targeting women and minorities, coupled with TMC’s organisational control at the booth level, leave little space for the BJP to expand despite attempts at religious polarisation.

Analysts, however, note that the ruling party will enter the 2026 polls carrying 15 years of anti-incumbency, a factor that could weigh on voter sentiment as it did against the Left Front in 2011 after more than three decades in power.

Banerjee also used the occasion to hit out at the Election Commission, accusing it of intimidating state officials after four bureaucrats were suspended. “The Election Commission comes and goes, but the state government remains,” she said, signalling defiance amid growing friction between her administration and the poll body.