Change in BJP Campaign Strategies ::: West Bengal
** Industrial investment continues to elude West Bengal
The Lotus party has revived its best known old trick. --
** Stay Focused on grassroots mobilisation.
The BJP had own 77 of 294 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections and emerged as the principal opposition. This was no small achievement as compared to BJP's success in 2016 assembly polls.
In the process; the Congress and the Left parties including the CPI-M drew blank.
Nevertheless, the BJP now faces the challenge of translating local grievances—particularly over unemployment and welfare delivery—into electoral gains. It is easier said than done.
Hence; each party legislator has been tasked to cover at least five booths daily and interact with local residents.
The BJP leaders have been also advised to expose the double standards of the Mamata Govt in denying the poor their rights vis-a-vis welfare measures.
One such refrain is the TMC regime led by Mamata Banerjee has denied citizens benefits under several centrally sponsored schemes.
It needs to be highlighted that tribal and minority communities have been disproportionately affected.
West Bengal is yet to implement the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana and hence the citizens are being deprived.
Similarly; Farmers have suffered financial losses due to the state’s decision not to adopt initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
Moreover, a number of railway projects remain stalled because of delays in land allocation by the state government.
If posters and various campaign slogans in Kolkata city is any pointer of the possible outcome of Assembly elections due within next 2-3 months; perhaps the Trinamool Congress has won the battle as the metropolis is dotted with towering claims of state government’s achievements and Mamata Banerjee’s welfarism.
In comparison there is not much 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 is not without context. The BJP and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress are engaged in tussle more than political.
The BJP’s challenge against regional party goes far beyond arithmetic. This sets the stage for 2026 battle-royale.
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 revived… and if so by whom”.
Take a leap and talk to a woman voter Sriparna Sen (44) – “I feel confident that the BJP will win the polls because we are promising cultural renewal without being culturally alien as Trinamool leaders often allege. TMC says it is for Bangla but it is under Mamata Banerjee; a great decline has hit Bengali culture”.
But there is another version …. 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.
Not many can deny that 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 – fuel for Trinamool propaganda. Former BJP national president J P Nadda’s erroneous remark that Rabindranath Tagore was born in Santiniken became a symbol of this disconnect.
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But it also goes without saying that unlike its glorious past; West Bengal today is a landscape of persistent economic stagnation, violence and syndicate’s evil influence.
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”. Such view was endorsed by Prashanto Nandi in Kharda region of the city outskirts.
“It sounds paradoxical… but you must note that this cultural vacuum and gross appeasement of goonda elements and minorities especially Muslims have opened avenues for BJP to emerge as a challenger.”
There is another vital facet. Over the decades, the BJP worked not only among upper caste Middle class Hindus – the Bhadralok – they also tried to win over weaker sections.
The BJP has expanded bases among Rajbongshis, Matuas, Namasudras, smaller Adivsi groups, Gorkhas and even Christians. Resentment has also grown over allegations that Muslim communities cornered a disproportionate share of the OBC quota benefits.
In other words – a fact not being realized even by the Leftists and the Congress – for a vast majority the BJP became a vehicle of protest against the entrenched hierarchy.
But on another plane – the Bengal election is a big puzzle. It has rather emerged as an ideological contest point between Bengali cultural identity and Hindutva consolidation.
Scared about such phenomenon; PM Narendra Modi has written a letter to voters starting with the salutation - Joy Maa Kali.
A section of citizenry says the Mamata Banerjee is nevertheless quite nervous because the public perception is changing fast on many issues.
Ronojit Sanyal says – “The BJP has succeeded in projecting the aunt-nephew combo Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee as symbol of dynastic ambition, tyranny and also corruption”.
Trinamool is countering these by making it the battle between Bengali pride and Hindi-Hindu narratives of the BJP. Mamata Banerjee knows her past.
The strong anti-Left image still is her strength.
Even some years back, the anti-Left liberalism had made her invincible.
“This will work well even in 2026 as was the case in 2021. The Congress and the Left votes in south Bengal had shifted to Trinamool and these two parties could not open account in the state assembly,” remarks Moloy Das, a Trinamool booth worker in Jadavpur locality.
Box :::
** The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked a political storm in West Bengal.
There has been a fierce legal battle in the Supreme Court.
** A prominent protestant Pastor Saroj Roy – says “Beef eating is hardly an issue because Rajbongshi Christians do not eat beef.”
** In northern part of the state – the demand for a separate homeland/administrative set up is gaining currency yet again.
** BJP has its own baggage. Its Hindutva is not acceptable even to many Hindus who prefer tolerance and pluralism.
Ends
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