Perhaps the Prime Minister has decided that the way to a Bengali voter’s heart is through the stomach. Maybe Trinamool’s claim that a BJP government in Bengal would ban fish-eating has made him nervous.
Or, perhaps, the scales have fallen at last from the eyes of the avowed shakahari.
As Narendra Modi went fishing for votes in poll-bound Bengal on Thursday, he dangled the bait in full earnest.
He carped at an election rally in Haldia that Bengal has to knock at other states’ doors for its favourite food because of the Trinamool Congress’s corruption. He suggested a BJP government would correct that.
“Despite such a high demand for fish in Bengal, the state is still not self-reliant in fish production. Even today, Bengal imports fish from other states,” Modi said.
“In the 15 years of its rule, TMC has not even been able to provide you with fish….. This too is an example of the TMC’s corruption.”
Modi claimed that fish production in India had doubled in the past 11 years. “Wherever the NDA government is in power, fish production is increasing rapidly,” he said, citing the examples of neighbouring Bihar and Assam.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been warning voters that a BJP government in Bengal would ban fish and meat, hit back.
“What about the fact that they themselves do not allow fish in Bihar, UP, Rajasthan? In Delhi, shops selling fish and meat are attacked,” she said at Palta, North 24-Parganas.
Mamata said: “You do not let people speak in Bengali. Are you not ashamed of it? And then you come to (give) us a lesson on fish production? Earlier, we used to import fish from Hyderabad, but now 80 per cent of fish is produced here in Bengal.”
She continued: “They need not worry about fish production in Bengal, but first answer why Bengalis in other states are stopped from eating fish or meat. I am not saying everyone must eat non-vegetarian (food), but food should be a personal choice.”
The BJP has restricted meat sales near religious sites in several northern states. However, it denies plans for a blanket ban. In Goa and the Northeast, the BJP accepts even beef-eating, which is anathema to it elsewhere.
BJP candidates in Bengal have been desperately trying to offset the perception that their party is a threat to Bengalis’ eating habits.
The BJP’s Bidhannagar candidate, Sharadwat Mukherjee, recently campaigned in Salt Lake flaunting a fish like a trophy.
Kharagpur Sadar nominee and former BJP president Dilip Ghosh has visited fish markets on his campaign trail.
Swapan Dasgupta, journalist-author and the BJP candidate from Rashbehari, told a TV reporter that his lunch was incomplete without fish.
In Haldia, Modi linked the country’s rising fish production to the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, launched in 2020-21. “Since this scheme has ‘PM’ in its name, the TMC does not like it… they are not implementing schemes that benefit fishermen,” he said.
“A double-engine government will make Bengal self-reliant in seafood and fisheries.”
A former National Fisheries Development Board official said Bengal had refused to be part of the scheme when it was launched. The scheme is designed to address gaps in the fisheries value chain from fish production to marketing, he said.
Numbers
A former Bengal fisheries department official said fish production in the state had witnessed robust growth over the past few years.
“In financial year 2024-25, Bengal produced 23.7 lakh tonnes of fish. The annual consumption is between 21 and 23 lakh tonnes,” he said.
“The production target for 2025-26 (which ended on March 31) was 25 lakh tonnes. Data is being collated from the districts; the annual output will be known soon.’
Another source in the fisheries department said Bengal had exported around 1.8 lakh tonnes (to other states and foreign countries) and imported (from other states, mainly Andhra) around 1.25 lakh tonnes in the 2024-25 financial year.
He said Bengal always imported Indian carps (mainly rohu and catla) from Andhra. “Now, the (import) volume is going down.”
A leading fish supplier who caters to several star hotels echoed the fisheries official. “A significant section of the large rohu and catla still comes from Andhra, but Bengal is one of the leading producers of prawns, shrimps and fresh fish,” he said.
A whole catla placed across a large tray is an essential part of most auspicious Bengali occasions, such as a wedding or a child’s rice-eating ceremony.
A leading restaurateur in Bengal said the Prime Minister wanted to “touch a responsive chord in Bengalis” and offset allegations that the BJP was alien to Bengali culture.
Bihar deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha recently announced a ban on the open-air sale of meat and fish near schools, colleges and religious places.
Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya had to quickly dispel any fears about Bengal: “Bengalis will certainly continue to eat fish and meat.”
A political row broke out in April 2024 when, during Navratri, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav posted a video of himself eating fish. Modi and the BJP condemned the act as insensitive and indicative of a “Mughal mindset”.
Tejashwi later clarified that the meal had been consumed on the eve of Navratri.
On December 7, 2025, men with avowed saffron links assaulted Muslim vendors for selling non-vegetarian food during a mass Gita recital on the Brigade Parade Grounds in Calcutta.
Mamata flagged the incident on Thursday. “This election is about saving Bengal — its language, culture and food habits. They question fish production but attack people selling chicken patties,” she said.