The Long Game

How the BJP is using its Hindi-belt playbook in West Bengal and succeeding

- HARTOSH SINGH BAL

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress delivered an unexpectedly comprehensive victory in the West Bengal assembly election. In the lead up to it, almost all articles had spoken of a close contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which led a high-decibel campaign in the state. The TMC’s victory, in turn, led to various think pieces on the exceptionalism and pride of Bengalis that halted the Hindutva juggernaut. And yet, the electoral campaigns and a breakdown of the results show that the state is increasingly subject to the same forces that shape the politics of the Hindi belt. Rather than confining ourselves to the political history of the state, it makes sense to consider these elections results in light of what is happening in the rest of the country.

The BJP’s basic strategy in the state has been similar to what it has followed elsewhere: the consolidation of upper-caste power. The party deploys the rhetoric of Hindu nationalism while its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, works to gather Adivasis, Dalits and Other Backward Classes into its fold. If, despite this, the results in Bengal have ended up differing from those in the Hindi belt, this has largely to do with the one fact that does make Bengal exceptional: its demographics, with a significantly higher proportion of Muslims compared to other states.