Celebrations erupted at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi on November 14, 2025, as the party basked in the glow of a landslide victory in the Bihar Assembly election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ever the orator, took to the stage and declared, “The Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal.” This was no mere poetic flourish—it was a clarion call for the party to turn its attention eastward, toward the critical 2026 assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.
According to India Today, the mood at BJP headquarters was buoyant, with leaders attributing their confidence to the so-called Modi-Amit Shah model: a blend of tight organizational control, focused messaging, and relentless groundwork. The party’s recent string of victories has reaffirmed this approach, and BJP insiders are convinced that the momentum from Bihar can be harnessed to tackle the “mother of all assembly polls” in West Bengal.
The party’s preparations are meticulous. By the end of 2025, the BJP plans to complete a sweeping restructuring of its state units, with new chiefs expected soon for Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, and Jharkhand. The goal is clear: to build a fully aligned organizational structure capable of translating electoral rhythm into direction. As one senior BJP strategist put it, “Bihar gave us rhythm. Now Bengal will give us direction.”
Yet, West Bengal presents a formidable challenge. In the 2021 assembly election, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) swept the state, winning 214 out of 294 seats and capturing a 48 percent vote share. The BJP, despite a strong showing, secured 77 seats with 38.1 percent of the vote. Their fortunes dipped slightly in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with their vote share slipping to 39.1 percent and their seat tally shrinking from 18 to 12 out of 42.
One of the biggest hurdles for the BJP in West Bengal is the demographic reality: there are 146 assembly seats where Muslims account for between 25 and 90 percent of voters. In 2021, the TMC won 131 of these seats, while the BJP managed just 14. The communal polarization strategy, which has been central to the BJP’s playbook elsewhere, has had limited effect here. As a state party veteran explained to India Today, “In fact, it has helped Mamata, as the Muslim votes moved en bloc to the TMC, while the BJP’s reverse polarisation worked only in parts.”
Recognizing the limits of its usual tactics, the BJP has dialed down its Hindutva rhetoric in Bengal, hoping that a softer approach might open new electoral avenues. This adjustment mirrors strategies employed in Maharashtra, Delhi, and Bihar, where results suggested that moderation could attract alternative support from Muslim voters. The party is banking on a similar shift in Bengal, but faces a new flashpoint: the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which began in mid-October 2025 and is set to conclude with final rolls by February 7, 2026. The BJP has seized this opportunity to strengthen its booth-level machinery and verify voter data, while the TMC has raised alarms about potential voter deletions, accusing the EC of facilitating a “political purge.”
The BJP’s organizational strategy in Bengal is granular. The state has been divided into five operational zones—Purulia-Bardhaman, Howrah-Hooghly-Medinipur, Kolkata Metropolitan & South 24 Parganas, Nabadwip & North 24 Parganas, and North Bengal (Malda-Siliguri division)—each managed by a dedicated team. By early December, the party claimed to have covered 70,000 of the state’s 81,000 booths, a significant leap from its 2021 campaign. “In 2021, we had enthusiasm without data,” a senior state office-bearer told India Today. “Now we have both.”
Prime Minister Modi himself is closely monitoring the situation. On December 3, 2025, he met with BJP MPs from Bengal to review organizational preparedness, discuss local challenges, and assure them of full support. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates have also expanded their reach into rural districts, aiming to influence the outcome where it matters most: Bengal’s villages and small towns.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to play a pivotal role in the BJP’s campaign across four key states. As reported by IANS on December 9, 2025, Shah will embark on a fortnight-long visit starting December 28, beginning in Assam and moving on to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. These visits are designed to advance the BJP’s ‘Vijay Rath’—or chariot of victory—by energizing grassroots workers, implementing the ‘Mera Booth Sabse Majboot’ (My Booth, the Strongest) plan, and holding organizational meetings to identify and address burning issues on the ground.
A party leader told IANS that Shah’s strategy is to replicate the NDA’s resounding victory in Bihar by countering misinformation campaigns around the SIR and other socio-economic concerns such as employment. Shah, widely acknowledged as the chief architect behind many of the NDA’s electoral wins, is noted for his hands-on approach—during the Bihar campaign, he reportedly met with nearly 100 rebels to ensure party unity and prevent vote-splitting.
In Assam, the BJP has set an ambitious target of winning 103 out of 126 assembly seats in 2026, building on its 2024 Lok Sabha success, where it captured 11 out of 14 seats with a 42.3 percent vote share. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is leading a campaign focused on welfare delivery and demographic security, but his growing dominance has sparked some internal disquiet. According to India Today, some party veterans worry that over-reliance on Sarma could shift the campaign away from governance toward sharper identity politics. The 2023 delimitation of assembly constituencies has also reshaped the electoral map, reducing Muslim-dominated seats from 30 to 22, and the Election Commission has opted not to conduct the SIR in Assam, citing the need for stability after the boundary changes.
Tamil Nadu presents its own set of challenges. The BJP has replaced its polarizing state chief K. Annamalai with Nainar Nagendran, a move aimed at improving alliance prospects with the AIADMK and targeting seats in southern and semi-urban areas. In Kerala, the appointment of Rajeev Chandrasekhar as state president signals a shift toward technocratic, urban-professional leadership. The upcoming local body elections in December 2025 will serve as a test for the party’s strengthened booth-level network, with over 21,000 candidates fielded across 23,600 wards.
In Puducherry, the BJP is consolidating its position after securing six assembly seats in 2021, though it suffered a setback in the 2024 general election, losing the lone parliamentary seat to Congress by about 136,000 votes. The party’s focus is on the urban middle class, traders, and Hindu caste minorities, with the 2026 assembly poll viewed as a proving ground for incremental growth.
With the afterglow of the Bihar victory still lingering, the BJP’s top leadership—Modi and Shah—have already shifted their attention to the next battlegrounds. The stakes are high, especially in Bengal, where a win would not only break Mamata Banerjee’s stranglehold but also cement the BJP’s eastward expansion, completing the party’s “saffron jigsaw” from Assam to the Bay of Bengal. As the Ganga metaphor suggests, the months ahead will test the BJP’s strategy and resolve across India’s diverse political landscape.
The coming year promises to be a defining chapter in Indian politics, as the BJP seeks to transform electoral momentum into lasting political dominance—one state at a time.