Protests intensified in Kolkata on Friday as hundreds of SFI (Students’ Federation of India) and DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) activists hit the streets demanding the resignation of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The uproar follows the Supreme Court’s recent decision to invalidate the appointment of nearly 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and aided schools over massive recruitment irregularities.

Waving banners and shouting slogans, around 500 protesters marched through the busy Sealdah area, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of deep-rooted corruption in the education sector. The demonstrators held the Chief Minister directly accountable for what they called one of the most damaging recruitment scandals in the state’s history.

“The future of thousands of qualified candidates has been destroyed by corruption and nepotism. Top leaders in the TMC, including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, are implicated in this scam. Mamata Banerjee must take moral responsibility and resign,” said Subhajit Sarkar, a member of the SFI state committee.

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a Calcutta High Court ruling from April 2024 that annulled the appointments of 25,752 staff selected through the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment process. The court cited widespread irregularities and a lack of transparency, sparking outrage and calls for justice from affected candidates.

Protesters demanded immediate measures to compensate eligible candidates who were denied fair selection and called for a complete overhaul of the recruitment system to ensure merit-based appointments in the future.

As tensions escalate, this controversy is expected to have far-reaching political implications in the state, putting the TMC government under renewed public and legal scrutiny.