West Bengal: BJP missteps and Mamata’s inner turmoil

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, once an eccentric and outspoken judge of the Calcutta High Court known for his politically incorrect courtroom comments — he was called an ‘unguided missile’ — lashed out recently at his own party, the BJP, which he joined after quitting his judicial post to contest last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Yet barely 18 months after winning the elections, Gangopadhyay has sharply criticised the BJP’s ‘north Indian’ leadership for their inability to understand Bengal’s political tapestry.

In a recent TV interview, Gangopadhyay condemned the BJP’s central leadership for lacking the cultural insight needed to win Bengal. He further alleged that the party had no real intention of unseating chief minister Mamata Banerjee, feeding speculation that even Modi and Mamata tacitly prefer the political status quo. He urged imposition of President’s Rule in the state, claiming that the administration was so compromised that fair elections were impossible. He also accused the Election Commission of treating the Mamata government with undue leniency.

His statements seemed to echo broader sentiments in political circles and the gossip at tea shops across West Bengal — that the BJP repeatedly sabotages its own progress in West Bengal through a tone-deaf approach to Bengali culture and policy missteps.

From vandalising Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s statue during the 2019 campaign to attempting to cover up the unclothed and ferocious idol of Goddess Kali — whose worship involves meat, alcohol and song — the BJP has consistently stumbled over Bengali sensitivities. BJP supporters mocking Bengalis for eating fish and meat during Navratri, and Visva-Bharati’s harassment of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen over alleged land encroachment, further inflamed public opinion.

There were other unforced errors: BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya’s comment that Bengali was “not a language”; a Delhi Police circular referring to Bengali as ‘Bangladeshi language’; and, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s taunt against a Congress leader for singing Tagore’s Amar Sonar Bangla, now the national anthem of Bangladesh. A BJP MP from Karnataka added fuel to the fire by repeating the tired old lie that Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana to honour a British monarch.

Each of these incidents reinforced what Gangopadhyay has now said publicly: that the BJP leadership remains out of touch with Bengal’s cultural and political psyche.

Add to this list the BJP’s unwavering support for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by the Election Commission — aimed at identifying ‘illegal migrants’ — which has backfired in parts of Bengal.

Though the party presents the drive as a campaign against undocumented Muslim immigrants, the reality is more complex. After 1971, a large number of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh settled in West Bengal. Many of these migrants, long naturalised and integrated, now fear being branded infiltrators.

For several families, the ensuing uncertainty has proven devastating, with suicides reported among those unable to prove their citizenship. The BJP’s propaganda machine insists that SIR targets Muslim infiltrators allegedly aided by the TMC for electoral gain. But in practice, the fear it spreads cuts across communities, alienating Hindu refugees who once formed a loyal vote base.

In an attempt to reassure them, the BJP announced Citizenship Amendment Act camps across border districts, promising to regularise the status of Hindu migrants. Yet, instead of restoring trust, the overlapping narratives of exclusion and selective inclusion have only deepened voter anxiety.

For the Trinamool Congress (TMC), this misstep is a gift — it allows Mamata Banerjee to frame the BJP as both communal and incompetent, reinforcing her image as Bengal’s defender against Delhi’s ‘outsiders’.

However, the BJP received an unexpected gift from an unusual quarter: Humayun Kabir, MLA from Murshidabad’s Bharatpur, quit the TMC and announced plans to form a new party intended to woo voters in Muslim-majority districts. Kabir’s entry threatens to split the Muslim vote bank and narrow the gap between Trinamool’s 46.7 per cent vote share and BJP’s 38.7 per cent, introducing fresh unpredictability ahead of elections.

There are other problems piling up for Mamata. And this time it is from within her own party’s tainted past. The recent bail granted to former minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam in teachers’ recruitments, has reopened old wounds.

Chatterjee was once among Mamata’s most trusted lieutenants. His arrest in 2022, following the ED’s recovery of Rs 50 crore in cash from properties linked to his associate Arpita Mukherjee, had forced the chief minister to sack him in a desperate bid to contain the damage.

His release raises difficult questions. Chatterjee “knows too much”, as many in Kolkata put it — about internal dealings, party finances, and the network of favours that kept the TMC machinery running. Ignoring him might provoke him into breaking his silence.

The timing could not be worse. The state government is already struggling to comply with Supreme Court orders mandating re-evaluation of teachers’ recruitment, with tens of thousands of affected candidates demanding justice. Chatterjee’s return threatens to reignite protests and revive opposition attacks on corruption within the TMC.

Mamata Banerjee has faced such crises before — from the Saradha chit fund and Narada sting scandals involving former minister Mukul Roy, to factional feuds within her party. But as fatigue sets in after years in power, her ability to manage these fires simultaneously may be waning.

West Bengal’s politics today mirrors a peculiar symmetry: both the BJP and the TMC are being undermined by their own members and misjudgments. Gangopadhyay’s revolt exposes the BJP’s cultural alienation and factional unease; Kabir’s defection and Chatterjee’s bail expose the TMC’s internal fragility and moral exhaustion.

With the next election cycle not far, both parties find themselves on uncertain ground. The people of Bengal, meanwhile, watch with weary amusement — accustomed as ever to the endless drama of politics, betrayal and survival.