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Kolkata: In politics, a story often acquires real weight the moment it is denied. That is what unfolded on April 19 in West Bengal, after a report that the poll consultancy firm I-PAC had paused operations in the state triggered an immediate rebuttal from the Trinamool Congress, followed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s public assurance that those affected would be protected.

On Sunday morning, Deccan Herald reported that the Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC, had asked its employees in West Bengal to stop work and go on a 20-day leave, citing “legal obligations”. With polling due on April 23 and 29, the report landed at the most sensitive point in the campaign and set off immediate political tremors. 

Within hours, the TMC issued a formal denial. The party called the claim “completely baseless” and said it was a deliberate attempt to create confusion and disrupt its campaign. It insisted that the I-PAC West Bengal team remained fully engaged with the AITC and that campaign operations were continuing as planned. The party also said Bengal would not be “swayed by misinformation or intimidation”. 

The National & State Media are peddling a narrative that IPAC has “halted its operations in West Bengal for the next 20 days.” This claim is completely baseless and appears to be a deliberate attempt to create confusion on the ground. IPAC WB team remains fully engaged with… pic.twitter.com/QymUo0TDH9 — 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) April 19, 2026

The National & State Media are peddling a narrative that IPAC has “halted its operations in West Bengal for the next 20 days.”

This claim is completely baseless and appears to be a deliberate attempt to create confusion on the ground.

IPAC WB team remains fully engaged with… pic.twitter.com/QymUo0TDH9

— 𝐑𝐢𝐣𝐮 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 (@DrRijuDutta_TMC) April 19, 2026

But the matter did not end with the denial. Later in the day, CM Banerjee took the issue head-on at a rally in Tarakeswar, Hooghly, and signalled that the party was preparing for disruption. Without naming I-PAC directly, she said those working for her party were being pressured to leave Bengal. 

“They raid us through the ED [Enforcement Directorate] every day. Suddenly, during elections, they remembered all this? They are telling those who work for our party to leave West Bengal. They have 50 organisations. We have only one,” she said. “If they are threatened, they will join us. We will give them jobs. I will not allow even one boy to lose his job.” 

Yet even as the leadership denied any rupture, accounts from the ground suggested that something had shifted.

A young I-PAC ground........

© The Wire