The Bengal BJP had to depend heavily on its party units of Assam, Delhi and Odisha to make its presence felt on two recent issues, the north Bengal floods and the Durgapur gang rape.
The dependence raised questions about the state unit’s organisational strength ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls. While BJP-ruled Assam and Delhi sent huge quantities of relief materials to north Bengal, the Odisha unit played a big role in keeping the Durgapur issue alive.
The rape survivor was from Odisha. Last Tuesday, the BJP’s former state president and Union minister of state, Sukanta Majumdar, visited Delhi and flagged off a truckload of relief materials donated by the Delhi party leadership, including contributions from Bengalis settled there.
Earlier, at least nine truckloads of relief items from Assam came to north Bengal. Last Tuesday, a BJP delegation from Odisha, headed by Balasore MP Pratap Sarangi, along with the party’s women leaders, participated in the BJP’s Durgapur protest. Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi directly intervened in the Durgapur issue and spoke to the girl.
“Support from other states is an advantage. However, it raises questions about whether the Bengal unit has organisational strength to take up issues on its own,” said a BJP leader.
“Party workers in most south Bengal districts did take up the relief drive, but the collection was insufficient. So, the party had to request its units in Assam and Delhi for help,” the BJP leader admitted.
Despite the BJP’s strong organisational base in north Bengal with 30 MLAs, many believe the party’s presence was minimal after the devastating floods. A source said the October 6 attacks on BJP MP Khagen Murmu and MLA Shankar Ghosh in flood-hit Nagrakata also reduced the party’s footfalls on the ground.
The BJP-led Narendra Modi government sent a central team headed by Union minister Kiren Rijiju briefly.
Many pointed out how the CPM, which failed to win a single Assembly seat in 2021, could reach most places in the state to collect relief for north Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee went to flood-hit areas twice, each visit lasting for days, in a bid to regain ground for Trinamool Congress in north Bengal.
“If you compare the BJP’s presence in north Bengal on the ground after the flood with its organisational strength, it appears quite nominal. Ahead of the election, in a region where the party has an established vote bank, the BJP should have done better,” said political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty.
“Not only in the Durgapur incident but also in other cases of atrocities against women, the Bengal BJP has failed to gain political dividends. Though the Odisha BJP unit extended help and even the state’s chief minister directly intervened, organisational lapses prevented the Bengal unit from handling the issue effectively. You can see that no such ‘outsourcing’ is required in East Midnapore, where the organisational strength is robust under Suvendu Adhikari’s leadership,” Chakraborty added.
In the case of the Durgapur gang rape, the BJP failed to take up the issue strongly enough to corner the Mamata government, he said. Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar refuted organisational weakness.
“It is not true that relief collection from south Bengal was nominal. It is natural to receive help from other states during disasters...,” said Sarkar.
“Extra relief is needed as Trinamool has been looting materials on the ground. Bengal is perhaps the only state where MPs and MLAs are beaten up for trying to distribute relief.”
“The more important point is that additional relief is needed because TMC has been looting materials on the ground. Bengal is perhaps the only state where MPs and MLAs are beaten up for trying to distribute relief,” Sarkar added, noting that Odisha’s involvement was natural as the Durgapur victim hailed from that state.
He added that Odisha’s involvement in the rape case was natural as the survivor hailed from there. Trinamool, however, did not miss the chance to claim that the BJP lacked a strong Bengal base, forcing it to depend on other states — from ideas to relief and from politics to policy.
“The BJP depends on leadership from other states, which is why their top leaders, like Bhupender Yadav from Rajasthan and Biplab Deb from Tripura, are sent as election heads. Similarly, they rely on Assam and Delhi for relief materials and on Odisha for Bengal politics,” said Trinamool leader Arup Chakraborty.