GAME PLAN TO BREAK NEW GROUND

THE BJP IS CONFIDENT OF RETAINING ASSAM AND NETTING BIG GAINS IN BENGAL WHILE ALSO MAKING INROADS INTO THE SOUTHERN STATES

- By ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

For the BJP, West Bengal remains the top prize among the five states going to the polls in April. And while it is confident of retaining power in Assam, and has largely wrested the Northeast states from the Congress, ‘Bangla’ remains the missing crown jewel in the party’s eastern push. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his home minister Amit Shah, the state represents a huge challenge, a theatre where their untiring electoral machinery must perform with clockwork precision. Electoral setbacks in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP tally went down to 11 seats out of the total 42, have not deterred them. Since then, the party has honed a far more clinical playbook by marrying data-driven, booth-level targeting with early candidate announcements and finely tuned community alliances. The post-2024 approach, including dialling down the Hindutva rhetoric where needed, tightening coordination with partners, and enforcing disciplined execution has already paid rich dividends in state polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi. Now it’s time for the big challenge: how Bengal votes this year could set the trajectory for the party as it begins planning for the 2029 general election.

Meanwhile, next-door Assam is a study in contrast: with CM Himanta Biswa Sarma himself leading the charge, the BJP is expected to sail through. As for the southern push in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the party still lacks the dominant leaders and organisational roots to call the shots. Here, it’s a more nuanced strategy amid the hard realities of local politics—of positional advantage and incremental gains, where every election takes it closer to the top prize.

WEST BENGAL