Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has done something it’s been trying to do for years: win an election in West Bengal. The state, previously a rare opposition stronghold, has now fallen to the BJP for the first time, further cementing Modi’s grip on Indian politics. Because apparently, one-party dominance wasn’t exciting enough.
The BJP is projected to take more than 205 of 294 seats in Bengal’s state assembly, a sweeping victory that ousts Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled for 15 years. Banerjee, one of Modi’s most vocal critics, now joins the growing list of opposition leaders wondering what just happened.
Modi, in a statement that probably sounded humble but wasn’t, declared the results “will be remembered forever” and that “people’s power has prevailed.” He also bowed to every person in West Bengal, which is either a touching gesture or a logistical nightmare, depending on your perspective.
The victory followed a controversial revision of West Bengal’s electoral roll, which removed 2.7 million voters - disproportionately Muslims and minorities who tend not to vote BJP. Critics called it a systematic skewing of the election; the government called it a routine cleanup. You be the judge.
Rahul Verma of the Centre for Policy Research called the win the culmination of a “seven-year project” by the BJP, noting that anti-incumbency and a well-organized campaign helped, but also that “this kind of result also wouldn’t have happened without a consolidation of the Hindu vote.” In other words, the BJP played the long game, and it paid off.
The BJP also retained power in Assam, giving it control of 20 out of 28 Indian states. The 2024 general election, where the BJP lost its outright majority, now looks like a temporary hiccup. The opposition, meanwhile, is busy losing ground and wondering where it all went wrong.
But not all is lost for the opposition: southern India remains a BJP-free zone. In Kerala, the Congress party defeated a Communist-led alliance for the first time in a decade, while in Tamil Nadu, former film star C Joseph Vijay and his new party became the first fresh political outfit to win power in nearly 50 years. Because if you can’t beat the BJP, at least you can have a movie star lead you to victory.