KOLKATA: In an apparent attempt to retain the Trinamool Congress' Muslim vote bank for ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that the BJP made the Waqf Act, not her party.

“We won’t follow the Act and have opposed it in the state legislative assembly. The state government has filed a case in the Supreme Court. The case is still on and I won’t allow anybody to touch the Waqf properties,” Mamata said while addressing a party rally at Gazole in Malda district.

Earlier this year, the Central Government amended several provisions of the Waqf Act, 1995. While some of these amendments remain under consideration before the Supreme Court, a senior official of the state government pointed out that "there is no stay on the implementation of the Centre's proposed changes." The state is obliged to follow the directive within the given timeframe, he felt.

Under the amended rules, mutawallis (caretakers of a waqf) of 8,063 Waqf estates in Bengal must register complete property details on the UMEED portal by 6 December, he elaborated.

The Trinamool Congress supremo’s statement came hardly four days after her government directed district magistrates (DMs) across the state on Friday to upload details of Waqf properties to the Central Government’s Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development (‘UMEED’) portal.

The state minority affairs and madrasah education department sent the directive to the DMs in this regard at a time when some officials in the department felt that the exercise as a "time-bound compliance requirement" set by the Centre.