This election in West Bengal is not only about identity politics but also governance: Sukanta Majumdar

PTI, March 23, 2026, Kolkata: In an interview with PTI, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar, the former state BJP president, said on Monday the party had recalibrated its campaign after failing to come to power in the 2021 Assembly polls.

The BJP is now banking on strengthening booth-level organisation, pushing a more “Bengal-centric” narrative, and cleansing electoral rolls through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which could alter the electoral arithmetic, he said. The election, he said, is not only about identity politics but also governance.

“There has been no major investment in 15 years. Gujarat gets around 17 per cent of India’s FDI, while West Bengal gets only 0.66 per cent. There is no development, no investment, the fiscal health of the state is poor, and the education system is declining,” he alleged.

Majumdar insisted that the numbers show the BJP’s base remains intact. “If there were organisational weaknesses, we wouldn’t have had 38–39 per cent vote share. The contest in Bengal is bipolar and many seats were decided by very narrow margins,” he said.

According to him, nearly 40 seats in 2021 were decided by margins below 5,000 votes and several others within 8,000 votes — the gaps he believes could swing if alleged irregularities in voter lists are eliminated.

Majumdar framed the 2026 Assembly polls as a demographic turning point for the state. He said rapid demographic changes under the rule of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal could soon turn Hindus into a minority in several districts, making it "very difficult" for candidates belonging to the community to win elections in the future.

“The census has not happened yet, but Mamata Banerjee herself said Muslims constitute around 33 per cent of the population. It could be 33–35 per cent. This percentage will increase in the next five years. After that, it will become very difficult for Hindus to win elections,” he said.

Majumdar claimed that the 2026 Assembly polls could therefore be the “last election” where Bengali Hindus remained the deciding factor in the state’s electoral outcomes, if the Trinamool retained power.

“The Trinamool will gradually be forced to give more tickets to Muslims instead of Hindus due to the change in demography. You can already hear demands for a Muslim deputy CM. These demands will be fulfilled in future, and eventually that could lead to a Muslim chief minister,” he claimed.

Majumdar added that the party was banking on consolidation among Bengali Hindu voters and growing disillusionment with the ruling TMC. “Hindus now understand that if they want to survive in West Bengal, they must remove this government,” he said.

He also alleged that the state faces growing influence of “fundamentalist forces” in some regions, particularly along the Bangladesh border, and said, “A large portion of West Bengal is already under the influence of criminals, fundamentalists and fanatics.”