Mamata Banerjee's nameplate removed, painted orange at Nandan while Jyoti Basu's plaque remains intact
Nov 02, 2026
Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 2 : Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nameplate has been removed from the main hall of Kolkata’s cultural centre Nandan and painted over in orange.
The development comes ahead of the annual Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF). Meanwhile, the plaque bearing the name of her predecessor and former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu remains intact within the premises.
On Sunday, the INDIA bloc held a mega rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan against alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with top Opposition leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, attending the event.
Banerjee, meanwhile, said people in Bengal were victims of the SIR exercise and asserted that she would continue the fight against it.
Addressing the INDIA bloc’s mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital, Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of looting West Bengal and said the fight to protect democracy would continue through political and democratic means.
“Bengal is the victim of the circumstances of this SIR. We will not give up. We will give our lives, we will fight, but we will not surrender. They looted our Bengal. We will save democracy and bring it back. We will take revenge through politics. We will take revenge through democracy. We will fight,” she said.
INDIA bloc leaders, including Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, attended the rally organised against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the SIR of electoral rolls.
Top Opposition leaders and supporters from across the country gathered at the venue for the INDIA bloc’s ‘Chalo Delhi’ protest march, raising concerns over the SIR exercise and alleged irregularities in electoral rolls.
The march began from the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction and proceeded towards Ramlila Maidan. The gathering followed a public “impeachment” programme against the CEC held in the national capital on October 31.