Ajay Kundu (a student of Jadavur University) says – “Mamata was a woman in bathroom slippers and cotton sari who chased murder after murder in Jyoti Basu’s Bengal. Today, the chief minister has been found defending the wrongdoers”.
For its part, the Trinamool Congress has its list of allegations against the BJP.
Jatin Sarkar, a TMC booth worker in Lake Town area of Kolkata says :
“The Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan was stopped by centre on irrational grounds. This has created extreme hardships… Bengalis are being deprived. Normal developmental momentum gets impacted”.
There other issues such as -- funds under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was stopped by centre. “Mamata Didi took up the challenge and started its own ‘Banglar Bari’ scheme and we have now covered more than 32 lakh households,” he says. There is also fund due from the Govt of India to the tune of Rs 1,97,000 crore. Out of this, major shortfalls are in MGNREGA -– Rs. 43,014 crore. He also alleged that “West Bengal has not received a single rupee under the Jal Jeevan Mission during 2025-26”.
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| Poster calling for Left Unity |
The polity is polarised between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee. So the socio-cultural atmosphere is automatically polarised because the Lotus party is famous for its pro-Hindutva agenda and the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit is accused of pursuing pro-Muslim politics and governance polls.
The one-and-half month long acrimonious political campaign and mudslinging has been kicked off in West Bengal. To start with, the polls to the 294-member state assembly is like a do or die battle for both the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the principal opposition BJP.
Onetime dominant Leftists as well as its traditional rival Congress are badly marginalised. In 2021 state assembly polls and 2024 parliamentary elections – both the communists including CPI-M and the Congress could not open account.
But the games are changing. The most striking irony is a perceived political convergence. TMC leaders now speak loudly about newly built Jagannath temple at Digha. The ‘battle of 2026’ will not only define who will rule West Bengal. It will also answer a basic question – whose idea of India or Bangla finally prevails.
“The Trinamool Congress is not concerned about our sons and daughters. They are only concerned about Madrasas. This appeasement cannot develop Bengal,” said BJP’s chief poll strategist and Home Minister Amit Shah. Little wonder; many Muslims across West constituencies in Kolkata and in hubs like Siliguri speak of their “fear” at the prospect of BJP rule.
“The Modi Govt had made West Bengal the first state to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Act. It is typically anti-Muslim and offers citizenship to refugees from all religions except Islam. This is seen as discriminatory against Muslims and may help Trinamool easily,” says Prabir Mazumdar in Cooch Behar in northern part of the state.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP stunned the state by winning 18 of 42 seats—seven of the eight parliamentary constituencies in North Bengal. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP secured 30 of North Bengal’s 54 Assembly seats, forming the backbone of its opposition presence. Mainstream Kolkata, however, continues to argue that even as the TMC may have lost ground in the north, it remains dominant in South Bengal.
Kumar Jitendra Narayan, a descendant of the Cooch Behar royal family, is confident the BJP will perform strongly again in 2026—provided it respects “people’s sentiment”. That sentiment revolves around long-standing demands for dignity, autonomy and fair governance.
In and around Kolkata city if posters and various campaign slogans in are any pointer of the possible outcome of Assembly elections; perhaps the Trinamool Congress is much ahead. The metropolis is dotted with towering claims of state government’s achievements and Mamata Banerjee’s welfarism. In comparison there is not many BJP posters or flags. One Trinamool campaign line is emphatic – “Jotoi Koro Humla, abar jeetbey Bangla (No amount of assault on us will make any difference. Bengal will win again”).
This campaign line has a special context. The BJP and the Mamata Banerjee-led party are engaged in tussle which is much more than simple electoral battle.
The coming election is not only about corruption and governance. Titu Bose, a resident in posh Tollygunj area says: “We are heading for a referendum on whether Bengali culture can be saved and revived… and if so who will do so, the TMC or the BJP”.
Analysts say many Bengali Hindus – especially middleclass – express distaste for BJP’s style of campaigning. “We do not see Hindu-Muslim divide in everything,” remarks housewife Tripti Sen, a resident of Kharda locality.
But elections also relate to multiple other issues. The role of police, administration and during poll season the role of the Election Commission. As it is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a controversial raw nerve in Bengal. Now adding to that within 24 hours since the announcement of poll schedules; the EC has replaced Chief Secretary, state DGP and Kolkata police commissioner. In first orders o Sunday night itself (March 15th); the chief secretary Nandini Chakraborty and Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena were replaced.
The state has got a new DGP in Sidd Nath Gupta. The poll panel also cancelled the contract of the agency that supplied web cameras during 2021 assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls of 2024. While the TMC leadership will be leaking wounds angrily; BJP leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar have welcomed the new directives of the EC.
Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar welcomed the new changes.
"The Election Commission has decided this. These officers were very biased... It is right to remove them. The Election Commission did the right thing”. But the Trinamool Congress staged a day-long walkout from the Rajya Sabha on March 16, Monday, protesting the Election Commission's decision to remove the state's top bureaucrats, including Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty.
The Cultural Debate
Critics argue that the Lotus party’s nationalistic rhetoric especially on the issues like language, literature and infiltrators clash with Bengal’s pluralism shaped by figures such as poet Kazi Nazrul Islam may not have many takers. The BJP carries its own baggage.
Past mistakes by senior BJP leaders helped Mamata Banerjee build a narrative that the party does not understand the Bengal ethos. Several central BJP leaders have stumbled over Bengal’s history and cultural icons. This fuel Trinamool propaganda. Former BJP national president J P Nadda once erroneously remarked that Rabindranath Tagore was born in Santiniken. This was used to present as a symbol of disconnect.
However, it also goes without saying that unlike its glorious past; West Bengal under Mamata for last 15 years is a landscape of persistent economic stagnation, violence and syndicate’s evil influence.
The polls this year will be important in more ways than one and there are multiple issues at play.
An IT employee Monodip Sarkar – who works in Bengaluru – says :
“The decline of Bengal did not happen overnight. The seeds were sown during the 34-year-old Left Front rule between 1977 and 2011.
This was only deepened by TMC further. Today, I am most being happy being a non-resident Bengali and I visit my parents twice in a year”.
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