Who are BJP’s Bengal ‘peacekeepers’? As Assembly poll looms, party calls in reinforcements

As these leaders largely speak Hindi, they are accompanied by local leaders who pitch in with translation during interactions with grassroots workers and people. Since their deployment to Bengal, these leaders have held meetings with party office-bearers at the mandal, Assembly, and district units.

Rathore, who has the experience of managing the UP Assembly elections in 2017 and 2022 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has been assigned 35 Assembly seats in West Bengal. Among the areas under his Contai and Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district, and Ghatal and Medinipur city in Paschim Medinipur district. Rana is overseeing Barrackpore, Barasat, and Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district. Rana is from Shamli district in western UP and has overseen the party’s electoral efforts in Haryana, Delhi, Tripura, and Madhya Pradesh. He has the responsibility of 28 Assembly constituencies, and recently travelled to Sandeshkhali, which saw a major political row in 2024 following allegations of sexual harassment levelled against local TMC leaders.

While Bhatia has been assigned Hooghly district, including Arambagh subdivision and Sreerampore, and Howrah town, Choudhary has been tasked with supervising the party’s preparations in Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, and other districts in North Bengal. All of these leaders report to Sunil Bansal, the BJP national general secretary in charge of the state.

“We are looking after political and organisational management, given our experience in our own states. We are also looking after the organisational campaigns and programmes, trying to step up our reach in the polling booths where we are weak. The larger focus, however, is on resolving the differences between local party workers,” said a “pravasi” leader.

Earlier this month, at a meeting with the state brass of the party, Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed them to “keep aside all differences” ahead of the Assembly polls. BJP insiders described the meeting as an attempt to “bridge the gap between the old and the new state party leadership”. However, with the TMC succeeding last time around in painting the BJP as the party of “outsiders” and repeating the narrative this time around too, how the BJP counters remains to be seen.

What the ‘pravasi sadasyas’ are doing

Asked about his responsibility, a “pravasi” leader said, “Since we are not local, we are not biased towards any individual party leader of the state. They can freely speak to us and discuss their issues and problems. As per our experience, we resolve issues at meetings and note down the complex issues to discuss with superiors. We are bringing together leaders who have problems with each other and convincing them to end their disputes in the interest of the party because bringing the party to power is the top priority.”

The party estimates that it needs to increase its vote share by 5% to win the elections, which is easier said than done. The BJP’s vote share in 2021 was 37.97% while that of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was 48.02%. A 5% swing for the BJP out of the TMC’s share will bring both parties to an equal footing.

The party does not want to take any chances this time. The BJP is organisationally stronger in 2026 than in 2021. Also, the anti-incumbency sentiment against the TMC government has grown,” said another leader.

Apart from managing the internal feuds and putting out fires, these leaders have been assigned low-margin constituencies that theparty has the chance of either retaining or taking from the TMC. For instance, one such constituency is Dinhata in Cooch Behar, which the BJP won by 57 votes in 2021.