The BJP has pitched the upcoming Bengal Assembly elections as a do-or-die battle pivoted on the dramatic refrain “ekhon noito aar kobe” (if not now, then when) and a blatantly communal campaign.
The party is putting finishing touches to a series of videos that seek to portray Hindus as victims of sectarian aggression, claim a demographic shift, suggest a breakdown of law and order under Trinamool rule and draw attention to “scams”.
Some of the videos, accessed by The Telegraph, attempt to tap into public disaffection by highlighting local grievances while tying them to a broader narrativ of administrative breakdown and positioning the BJP as the only credible alternative.
Each clip, built around a specific theme and claimed by the party to be drawn from real incidents, ends with a pointed punchline: “Eta bodlatei hobe; ekhon noito aar kobe. Paltano dorkar, chhai BJP Sarkar (This must change; if not now, then when? Change is needed — we want a BJP government).”
Party managers said the aim was to pitch the elections as a “decisive moment” for the people of the state to break the status quo.
None of the videos, however, contains any direct or indirect attack on three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee, suggesting a calibrated strategy shaped by lessons from the last Assembly elections.
In 2021, the BJP had mounted an aggressive campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taunting Mamata with the “Didi-o-Didi” refrain. This was widely believed to have alienated large sections of voters, particularly women. The BJP’s “Jai Shri Ram” slogan had also failed.
The messaging in the upcoming videos reveals a calculated strategy — blending emotive storytelling with a blunt call for regime change — as the BJP attempts once again to convert accumulated resentment into electoral gains in a state that has so far resisted its advances.
Given the BJP’s concerted attempt to sharpen communal fault lines ahead of the polls, one of the campaign videos picks on the alleged attacks on Hindus in Murshidabad in 2024 — an episode the party has repeatedly cited to flag what it calls an alarming demographic shift in the border state under Trinamool rule.
The dramatised clip portrays a group of local strongmen barging into a home and demanding to know the resident’s identity. On discovering that he is Hindu, the mob is shown dragging him out, dousing him with petrol and setting him ablaze. As screams fill the soundtrack, a voiceover declares: “Murshidabad violence, 2024. Three hundred Hindu families had to flee their homes. This must change; if not now, then when?”
By foregrounding such imagery, the BJP appears intent on consolidating Hindu voters around a narrative of insecurity, turning isolated incidents into a broader political message that frames the upcoming contest as much as a referendum on identity and safety as governance.
Another video zeroes in on the alleged sexual abuse of women in Sandeshkhali, an issue the BJP has repeatedly invoked to target the ruling dispensation. The clip depicts a local strongman handpicking a woman from a group and informing her that “dada” — an apparent reference to a local Trinamool Congress leader — has summoned her.
He escorts her to a room and leaves her there. The screen fades to the sound of a scream, followed by a voiceover: “Sandeshkhali-2024. A leader of the ruling party faced charges of sexually assaulting more than 30 women. This must change; if not now, then when? Change is a must, a government of the BJP is needed.”
Another video dwells on allegations of violence after the 2021 Assembly elections. “Post-2021 elections, 24 Opposition party workers were murdered. More than 11,000 incidents of political violence took place,” the narration claims, once again culminating in the call for change.
Yet another video trains its guns on what the BJP terms the “SSC scam”, or alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff through the West Bengal School Service Commission. The controversy triggered parallel probes by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which led to the arrest of then state education minister Partha Chatterjee.
By foregrounding the episode, the BJP seeks to reinforce its charge of systemic corruption under Trinamool and braid disparate controversies into a single narrative of administrative decay.