BJP LOOKS FOR BENGAL ENCORE POST BIHAR TRIUMPH

BJP says Bihar mandate has ‘laid the path’ to power in Bengal, giving oxygen to dislodge Mamata’s 15-year rule.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

The Bharatiya Janata Party's emphatic triumph in Bihar has sparked a wave of jubilation and renewed ambition among the saffron party's Bengal ranks, with leaders and workers openly declaring that the results next door have laid the path to power in West Bengal.

Party offices across Kolkata witnessed scenes of celebration as sweets were distributed and slogans of “Next is Bengal!” echoed through corridors where strategy for the high-stakes 2026 Assembly elections is already being shaped. As the NDA swept to a decisive victory in Bihar, the BJP drew fresh energy from the win—calling it “oxygen” for its mammoth battle to dislodge the fifteen-year-old Trinamool Congress regime in Bengal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the BJP headquarters set the tone for what party strategists called a “Bengal encore.” With unmistakable symbolism, Modi evoked the flow of the Ganga from Bihar to Bengal, claiming that the river itself had shown the way for a political resurgence eastward. “Jungle raaj ko ukhar phekegi...” he thundered, forecasting that Bengal, much like Bihar, would reject what the BJP casts as prolonged lawlessness under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's leadership.