West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take to the streets in Kolkata on Friday (January 9, 2026) to protest against itraids conductedraids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the I-PAC office and residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain. Ms. Banerjee will lead the procession from Jadavapur 8B Bus Stand to Hazra More.
“Tomorrow, our Hon’ble Chairperson @MamataOfficial will lead a rally against the BJP’s blatant misuse of central agencies and its assault on democracy,” the Trinamool Congress posted from its official social media handle.
On Thursday (January 8, 2026), Ms. Banerjee visited the residence of Mr. Jain and the office of the political consultancy firm in Kolkata during ED raids and said the raids were “politically motivated to steal party data”, including the candidate list for the upcoming elections.
Speaking at an event later in the day, the Chief Minister criticised the action of the Central agency and said such activities “take place before the elections”. “They have stolen everything, all data, SIR list,” she said referring to the ED raids.
Prior to this, the Trinamool Congress chairperson had hit the streets of the city on several occasions last year protesting against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision and attack on migrant workers from the State in other parts of the country. Political observers feel that the raids on the political consultancy firm have given a fresh handle to the Chief Minister to target the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Trinamool Congress said raids on I-PAC reflected the desperation of the BJP. “When the BJP knows it will lose Bengal, it unleashes ED. This is Amit Shah‘s politics: fear, force, and files. His desperation is exposed. If you have guts, come to the people. Fight us politically! Not through central agencies acting as your puppets,” the TMC posted from its official handle.
Trinamool Congress leaders Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale joined the party chairperson in taking on the Central investigative agency.
“ED suddenly wakes up in a 10-year-old case on the eve of elections? Inconceivable after so long that info on any scam will be on I-PAC devices — likely only current TMC political data will be. Faced with this political burglary, [Ms. Banerjee], as head of the party, is fully justified to take possession of devices & files which would otherwise be irretrievably lost if ED allowed to get its hands on contained data,” Ms. Moitra, TMC MP from Krishnanagar, posted on social media.
Mr. Gokhale, on the other hand, shared data on cases handled by the ED. “In the last 11 years, a total of 5,297 cases were filed by ED. How many were taken to court for trial? ONLY 47,” the TMC Rajya Sabha member said. He added that about 98% of ED cases against politicians were filed against Opposition leaders, and the remaining 2% were those who went and joined the BJP’s “washing machine”.
Curated by James Chen
