BJP hits top gear in Bengal; Shah may station in Kolkata before poll

The BJP has hit top gear insofar as West Bengal poll preparations go with lead strategist and Home Minister Amit Shah likely to station himself in Kolkata at an appropriate time ahead of the 2026 election cycle.

The Tribune has learnt that the Bengal unit of the BJP is scouting for an accommodation for Shah who will neither stay in a hotel nor a government guest house.

Sources say the Bengal BJP has zeroed in on a few houses in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area where Shah is likely to station himself in preparation and strategy for the Bengal elections.

Sources say the BJP realises that the 2026 Bengal election is “its best and perhaps the last chance to win against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress”.

“Anti-incumbency against the government has hit its peak, corruption and deteriorating law and order remain pressing issues. Common people are yearning for a change. The time for BJP is ripe. The 2026 election is our best and perhaps the last big chance to win Bengal. In 2028, the delimitation process will begin. So 2026 is a key battle for us,” said a reliable BJP source involved with planning for the state.

The level of interest in Bengal is evident from an elaborate meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with BJP MPs from Bengal in his Parliament office yesterday.

Speaking to The Tribune, some MPs today said the PM’s message was clear — “expand booth-level outreach by identifying beneficiaries of Central government schemes; establish connect with people in pockets where the BJP is weak, ensure the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the state progresses properly and efficiently with no genuine voter name getting deleted and espouse the cause of people with outstanding and unresolved concerns”.

Bengal BJP leaders add that the impact of the fall of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh and the change of guard there will also be felt in the 2026 Assembly polls in Bengal.

“The Presidency division will be specially impacted to our advantage. This area has around 70 Assembly seats and the BJP had fared poorly here last time,” said a senior BJP leader from Bengal referring to the administrative area in West Bengal, which consists of Howrah, Kolkata, Nadia, 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas.

BJP leaders cite “breakdown of law and order in the state and the scale of political violence at an all-time high as a reason behind an anti-Mamata wave”. They say this time they won’t make the mistake of attacking the CM personally like they did in 2021.

The focus will be on the ruling TMC’s “jungle Raj and governance shortcomings”, say Bengal BJP leaders further flagging a continuing flight of industry out of the state. They say the land policy or Bengal requires industrialists seeking to set up business to negotiate directly with land owners to arrange land banks. This, they note, is a frustrating impossibility.