The unprecedented triumph in West Bengal must count as the proverbial cherry on top of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ever-expanding electoral cake. The factors that facilitated the saffron sweep in a state that was once the elusive final frontier for the BJP merit examination. The anti-incumbency wave, even though it was subterranean, shifted the ground under Mamata Banerjee’s feet decisively. The BJP’s stupendous performance in districts that were outside its traditional strongholds — such as Birbhum, East and West Burdwan and the two Midnapores — is a case in point. Even Bengal’s women — once Ms Banerjee’s core consistency — appear to have yearned for change: women’s safety, among other issues, could have been a factor. The BJP’s formidable poll arithmetic also rested on other equations. The consolidation of the Hindu vote has yielded rich dividends; the impact of the deletion of a substantial number of electors under the controversial Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls tilted the field further; there was genuine public disaffection with the TMC’s institutionalising of corruption and its localised hegemonies — the latter was its inheritance from the Left Front — for over a decade. But what seems to have benefitted the BJP the most is Bengal’s favourable reception of the saffron party’s rhetoric of change. A state mired in decades of deep economic woes — paucity of jobs, industries, substantial investment, to name some of them — has voiced its desire for transformation unambiguously.
Ms Banerjee’s promise of poriborton — a selective curation of the Left’s welfare packages and subsidies — is no longer enough: Bengal wants more than that and Bengal wants it now.
The BJP faces a Herculean task to set things straight in the state. There is the need for Bengal’s economic resurgence — a layered, substantial challenge. The BJP must consider this lacuna to be one of its highest priorities, keeping in mind a template of industrialisation that works harmoniously with Bengal’s inherent strengths — institutional and creative. The rule of law must also be strengthened. This assembly election was perhaps the least scarred in terms of violence: the spectre of post-poll bloodshed must not be allowed to raise its head. The bogey of communalism, which afflicts much of India, must not be let loose in this state with a sizeable presence of minorities. Ultimately, the real test of the BJP’s electoral success in Bengal will be its ability to deliver on its pledges in the long term. Bengal has been disappointed — deceived — before when it comes to meaningful transition. The BJP will break its pledge at its own peril.