Why Amit Shah is pitching tent for 15 days in Bengal

The site of the announcement – Bhabanipur – was also significant. Adhikari is the BJP candidate from the seat against Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. An arch rival of Banerjee, Adhikari had defeated her in the last Assembly elections, from Nandigram.

Sources said that during his 15-day stay, Shah will be spending nights in key constituencies of north Bengal, a region the BJP has electorally dominated since 2019, taking feedback from party leaders, giving key strategic advice, ironing out any differences among the local leadership, and placating leaders unhappy about being denied tickets.

In north Bengal, Shah is expected to spend time in Siliguri and Balurghat, and to stay in Hooghly in south Bengal, and Kharagpur and Durgapur in south-west, among other places. The focus will be constituencies where the BJP lost in 2021 by narrow margins.

Shah will also be addressing a public rally or do a roadshow in the places where he spends nights.

Ahead of the 2023 Madhya Pradesh, the 2024 Maharashtra and the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, Shah, who remains the BJP’s top poll strategist, had similarly held meetings stretching late into the night with local leaders and booth workers to discuss the party’s weaknesses and strategy.

In Bihar, where the BJP emerged as the single-largest party by far and is set to have its first-ever CM, Shah’s poll preparations included splitting the state into 45 organisational clusters, and directly overseeing feedback from these to drive the campaign – not just for the BJP but also the NDA.

“In Bengal, Shah is likely to cover 20-25 constituencies during each night stay. He will have dinner with leaders and meet eminent personalities from the respective regions for talks… He is expected to begin the exercise after April 9,” a source said, adding that these meetings can go on till 2 am at night and re-start in the morning.

The source said that Shah will concentrate on constituencies where the BJP narrowly lost in 2021, with sitting MLAs and state leaders expected to be able to manage seats where the party won. BJP leaders pointed out that there were around 40 seats where the TMC won by less than 5% margin last time. Some of these constituencies were Rajganj, Jalpaiguri, Sitai, Mal, Mekliganj.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 77 seats, a huge jump from 3 in 2016, with its vote share rising more than three times from around 10% to 38%, on the back of a high-decibel campaign. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while the TMC had clawed back, reducing the BJP from 18 seats in 2019 to 12, the BJP had retained its vote share.

Even before he arrives for his 15-day stint, Shah’s attention has been on Bengal, amidst simultaneous elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. In September last year, the BJP appointed senior leader and Union minister Bhupender Yadav, a trusted Shah hand who oversaw the party’s successful campaigns in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, as election in charge, with Biplab Kumar Deb, former Tripura chief minister, as co-in charge.

Shah was in Bengal in December for a three-day visit meeting and discussing party’s preparations, and returned later in January 2026. In February, during another visit to Bengal, Shah said the BJP-led NDA alliance was in power in 21 states and Union Territories, but that it was not enough for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party workers. “There will be a smile on their faces when there is a BJP government in West Bengal,” he said.

West Bengal will vote in two phases, on April 23 and April 29.