The BJP’s central leadership made it clear on Thursday that even with Durga Puja festivities in the air in Bengal, the party’s focus on the perform-or-perish 2026 Assembly polls remains unwavering.

The single-mindedness of the BJP regarding this elusive eastern state became clearer when the party announced the names of Bhupendra Yadav and Biplab Deb as minders for the party’s Assembly election campaign for next year. Yadav is credited with handling the poll machinery for the BJP and achieving an unlikely win in Maharashtra last year. Deb has a Bengali connect as the former Tripura chief minister.

“Not only Maharashtra, which was remarkable, considering Yadav was brought in only five months prior to the state election there, but also Odisha and Haryana last year, besides Bihar in 2020 and Madhya Pradesh in 2023. Yadav has an impeccable record,” said a Bengal unit functionary of the BJP.

“The party’s seriousness in winning Bengal was never in doubt, at least to us. But these appointments underscore a reliance on seasoned strategists with an admirable track record of crafting narratives, mobilising the cadre, steering campaigns, and above all, managing the elections,” he added. “Yadav is also an RSS favourite, having been associated with the Sangh since he was a boy.”

Alwar MP Yadav, 56, had a substantial career as a lawyer besides saffron politics at the highest levels for a couple of decades. Since last year, he has been a member of the Narendra Modi-led Union cabinet, as the minister of environment, forest, and
climate change.

A senior in the state leadership said this was expected as Yadav had been familiarising himself with Bengal for around four months now.

“There were distinct signs that this was on the anvil, at least since June,”
he said.

“The central leadership did not wish to waste more time in formalising this. The Durga Puja season has no bearing on this. Delhi, unlike Bengal, does not really have a Puja season,” the BJP leader added. “Yadav is a maestro in social engineering in keeping with the state-specific, caste-based or linguistic or ethno-cultural needs while never becoming unmindful of the wider, foremost Hindutva project… he specialises in breaking down vast challenges to smaller, relatively easier to deal with, blocks.”

Deb — now the Tripura West MP — was chosen to help Yadav primarily for being a former Bengali chief minister of Tripura, a source said. Deb would be able to hold fort temporarily for short spells when the Union minister was busy.

“Both are raring to go. Yadav-Deb would begin work here immediately after Durga Puja,” said an insider.

BJP state president and Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya, unwilling to comment on the significance of Yadav’s posting, said this was in keeping with what the party did before elections.

“Such responsibilities are assigned ahead of elections. He has been duly assigned. We are confident of winning the election under his leadership, leaving no stone unturned,” he said.

Trinamool’s jibe

The Trinamool Congress jeered at the appointments and ruled out their possible impact.

“No matter who is appointed... Mamata Banerjee is going to retain power and be sworn in as Bengal’s chief minister for the fourth consecutive term next summer,” said Trinamool state general secretary Kunal Ghosh.

“Deb was such a miserable failure in his own state (Tripura) as chief minister that the party had to remove him unceremoniously and have him rehabilitated elsewhere. Such moves by them expose their irreparable weaknesses,” he added.