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The Bengali factor
West Bengal Election 2026: Polls in the state are a battle of narratives. Parties are using food and cultural symbols to connect with voters. The TMC emphasizes Bengali identity, while the BJP seeks to broaden its appeal. Both are navigating a complex electorate where cultural affinity meets governance concerns. The outcome will reveal shifts in political loyalties.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped at a local shop, selling "jhalmuri" in West Bengal's Jhargram, he was trying to fight against a narrative that has been built about the BJP in the border state.
The idea was to resonate with Bengalis, in Bengal. If looked at carefully, the PM gave a 10 Rs note to the muri-seller, telling us another anecdote about food in the state. It's cheap.This is not only about Jhargram. In urban areas, you still get a hefty afternoon meal within 50 Rs.
In the streets of Kolkata's Salt Lake, electioneering often comes with a distinctly local flavour. Waving a large Catla fish, Sharadwat Mukherjee, the BJP candidate from Bidhanagar went door to door canvassing for votes ahead of polls — a campaign image that neatly captured how culture and politics remain deeply intertwined in the state. Food, particularly fish, is more than a dietary preference in Bengal; it is identity.
That cultural symbolism has increasingly seeped into West Bengal’s political messaging.
The insider-outside debate
If we recollect, the BJP did not try any less in 2021 to overthrow the Mamata government. PM Narendra Modi visited the state multiple times, did similar number of road shows and rallies, the Home Minister and other senior leadership of the political party hardly left any stone unturned to fight the TMC.However, they could not beat one looming factor. The "Bahiragoto" vs "Bhumi-putra" debate. The former means an outsider, while the later refers to someone who belongs to the land of Bengal. Amit Shah, has said that if the BJP comes to power in 2026, the chief minister would be "a son of the soil", indicating a person from West Bengal, a Bengali. The most obvious expectation for anyone looking at the elections would be Suvendu Adhikari, Mamata's confidant-turned-fierce opposition character.
The TMC, however, continues to bank on the fact that is "Banglar Nijer Meye". The phrase became heavily used in 2021 to counter the BJP but has comparatively died down this election, as the BJP now has an abundance of Bengali faces in the state.
Interestingly, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, out of the 12 seats that the BJP won, other than the Darjeeling MP of Raju Bista, who is the face of Gorkhali representation in the state, all other are people from Bengal. The TMC's 29 looks a little different. The party has three MPs who are not originally from Bengal, fromer cricketer from Gujarat Yusuf Pathan, former cricketer from Bihar, Kirti Azad and famous Bollywood actor Shatrughan Sinha.
In Bardhaman-Durgapur, BJP leader S. S. Ahluwalia had won narrowly in 2019.
Historically, this blending of identities has worked in favour of the TMC, which has managed to attract both Bengali and non-Bengali voters. But the political terrain has shifted over the past five years.
The BJP has made notable inroads, particularly in rural districts such as Bongaon, Nadia, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Birbhum and Bardhaman. There is little evidence to suggest that its support comes only from non-Bengali voters; rather, it reflects a broader churn across communities.
Electoral outcomes underline this complexity.
Food as identity, identity as politics
The ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) has repeatedly warned voters that their food habits — especially fish and meat consumption — could come under threat if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes to power. The argument is simple: Bengali identity, with its distinct culinary traditions, needs protection."Fish is not eaten in BJP-ruled states. If the BJP comes, you won’t be able to eat meat or eggs. BJP is one-sided; they don’t believe in any religion. These people incite riots. They come to power by inciting riots, and they come to power by killing people. Most attacks on tribal people, attacks on women, happen in BJP-ruled states. Our Bengali-speaking people are attacked in other states. We don’t oppress anyone.," Mamata said in one of her election rallies.
A 2024 by ICAR and WorldFish found that about 65.7% of people in West Bengal eat fish at least once a week.
The BJP, aware of the sensitivity, has sought to counter this perception. Its leaders have gone out of their way to signal that the party would not interfere with local food practices. During an April 2026 visit to Kolkata, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke of taking Bengali cuisine global, promising that a BJP government would promote local specialities — including sweets — as international “global food”.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur was also seen publicly eating fish with party workers in the state, a symbolic gesture aimed at softening the party’s image.
Amid all these, there have been occasional disconnects. A few months ago, PM Modi brought up Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the writer of 'Vande Maataram'. The PM addressed the Bengali stalwart as 'Bankim da', not in any sense with a disrespectful intention.
He was corrected by TMC MP, Sougata Ghosh, who asked the Prime Minister, 'Aap Bankim da bol rahe hai," The PM immediately corrected himself, saying he understands the MP's emotion.
Sports Minister Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya once mispronounced, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, two of Bengal's and probably India's most inconic football clubs. These matters have received substantial criticism as well as drawn the public eye.
Durga Puja: Where the heart lies
The incumbment Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, gives substantial amounts of capital to clubs for the organisation, execution and management of Durga Pujas, conducts and presides over a Durga "visharjan" procession in Red Road.The idea of clubs, might not be new but be semantically different to people living outside the territory. Clubs are essentially local community organizations—often called Sarbojanin committees—that organize, fund, and build massive temporary, themed structures (pandals) for the Durga Puja festival.
Some of Banerjee's top confidants, including Calcutta Mayor Firhad Hakim, Bidhannagar MLA Sujit Bose organises massive Durga Pujas in the city. If not Durga, what more can resonate with Bengalis?
TMC MLA Aroop Biswas, organises the Suruchi Sangha puja while Beleghata candidate Kunal Ghosh is an important part of the Ram Mohan Mission (North Kolkata) puja.
Sajal Ghosh, a councillor in Kolkata and BJP's candidate from the Baranagar seat, is the organiser of the Santosh Mitra Square Durga Puja committee, and is one of BJP's moves to connect with the youth and community in Kolkata.
Beyond Bengalis: A layered electorate
While food politics often centres on Bengali identity, West Bengal’s electorate is far from homogeneous. Large populations of non-Bengali communities — Marwaris, Gujaratis, Punjabis and others — have long been embedded in the state’s economic and social fabric.Prominent business figures such as K. K. Birla and Sanjiv Goenka are not ethnically Bengali, yet are central to the state’s economic landscape. Goenka, who heads the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and owns the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants as well as football club Mohun Bagan Super Giant, is widely seen as being close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
When Banerjee swept to power in 2016, celebrations spilled out even in corporate hubs like the headquarters in Kolkata, where workers linked to TMC-affiliated unions marked the victory. The intersection of business, labour and politics has long blurred rigid identity lines.
Neighbourhoods such as Bhabanipur — Banerjee’s political stronghold — reflect this diversity. A sizeable share of voters here are non-Bengali, yet local culture remains deeply syncretic. A decades-old dhaba on Harish Mukherjee Road, run by non-Bengalis but celebrated by locals, has become a cultural landmark, popular for its unusual “doodh cola” — a mix of milk and cola that has drawn food vloggers and performers alike.
Even as the “Bengali factor” continues to offer an advantage to the TMC, it is being tested by rising anti-incumbency against Banerjee, who has been in power for nearly 15 years.
A contest of narratives
As campaigning intensifies, the battle in West Bengal appears to hinge on competing narratives: cultural identity versus governance, continuity versus change.Food — whether fish, meat or sweets — has become a proxy for larger questions of identity and autonomy. But beneath that lies a more complex electoral reality, where Bengali and non-Bengali voters alike are reassessing political loyalties.
The outcome may ultimately depend on whether cultural affinity continues to outweigh economic concerns and anti-incumbency — or whether the shifts seen in recent years signal a broader realignment in one of India’s most politically distinctive states.
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Source: EconomicTimes
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