The shockwaves from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s resounding victory in West Bengal are still being felt across the national political landscape. A major rift has emerged within the Trinamool Congress, a party that had enjoyed unchecked power in West Bengal for 15 consecutive years. The results of the West Bengal Assembly elections were declared on May 4, and the developments within the Trinamool Congress over the mere month that followed have exposed just how fragile the party’s foundations were.
Eighty Trinamool Congress MLAs were elected in this election; of these, 60 banded together to reject the appointment of the parliamentary party leader chosen by Mamata Banerjee, effectively asserting that they constituted the ‘real’ Trinamool. This clearly implies that the elected MLAs have now defied Mamata Banerjee’s leadership. It is precisely because these MLAs realized that they have no future under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership and under the shadow of Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee that they have raised the banner of rebellion against the party leadership.
These developments have raised questions about Mamata Banerjee’s very political existence. When more than two-thirds of the MLAs from a party that held power for fifteen consecutive years defy the decision of its top leadership in one fell swoop, it reveals just how hollow the party’s organizational foundation truly was.
Following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory, the discontent against the Trinamool regime in West Bengal has erupted on a massive scale. While the assault on Abhishek Banerjee made national headlines, numerous other incidents there symbolize the simmering anger among the common people against Trinamool’s oppressive rule. People are entering the homes of Trinamool office-bearers and recovering the extortion money and protection payments that had been collected from them. These incidents indicate that West Bengal had effectively been ruled by goons and jihadists in the name of government.
This outburst is gradually spreading across the state. To avoid becoming targets of this public anger, many Trinamool MLAs have begun trying to distance themselves from Mamata and Abhishek. Many MLAs are unhappy that, despite suffering such a massive setback in the Assembly elections, Mamata is once again handing over the reins of the party to her nephew, Abhishek. Since Trinamool has become a party that is the private property of Mamata Banerjee’s family, and since she is unwilling to hand over control of the party to anyone other than her nephew, these MLAs have been left with no option but to raise the banner of rebellion.
Against this backdrop, one is reminded of the journey of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In 1979, socialist leaders within the Janata Party demanded that leaders of the Jan Sangh faction should sever their ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Rejecting this demand, leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani decided to leave the Janata Party. Taking the position that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was their parent organization and that they remained firmly committed to the ideology of cultural nationalism, Atalji and Advani announced the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In its 45-year history from 1980 to 2025, the Bharatiya Janata Party has experienced many ups and downs and endured ridicule. However, even while building the party under extremely adverse conditions, it never compromised on its ideology.
At the time of the BJP’s formation, the Bharatiya Lok Dal, the Janata Party consisting of leaders from the former socialist tradition, and both Communist parties were the principal opposition forces challenging the Congress in national politics. Among them, the Janata Party and Lok Dal, in the form of the Janata Dal, secured a significant position in national politics during the late 1980s and early 1990s. For some time, the Janata Dal also enjoyed power at the Centre as part of a coalition government. However, all these parties have now become insignificant in national politics. The two socialist-oriented parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, maintain their presence in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
However, both these parties have been limited to one family. The Communist Party, meanwhile, is virtually non-existent outside Kerala. In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party has demonstrated consistent growth over the past 46 years. This is because the BJP’s leadership never abandoned the ideology of ardent nationalism in the pursuit of power. Prior to this, after entering national politics in 1951, the Jan Sangh built its organizational structure while facing extremely adverse conditions. Even when there was no remote prospect of attaining power, the Jan Sangh succeeded in creating a nationwide cadre of loyal workers.
Even when many senior leaders of the party, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were defeated in 1984, not a single party worker abandoned the organization in pursuit of power. In 2021, 77 BJP MLAs were elected in West Bengal. Except some of these MLAs, all other MLAs stayed in the party and fought against Trinamool. Despite the killing of over 300 BJP workers since 2021, the BJP’s voice against Mamata’s reign of terror remained undeterred. That is precisely why, in this election, voters chose the BJP as a strong alternative to the Trinamool. An ideology of staunch nationalism forms the BJP’s solid ideological foundation. Lacking such a foundation, other parties are merely managing to survive in national politics.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
