BJP reaches out to Bengalis living outside state with ‘last battle’ message

Kolkata: On September 25, when Union home minister Amit Shah headed for Kolkata to inaugurate a couple of Durga pujas, Debjit Sarkar, spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Bengal unit and Shankar Ghosh, the party’s chief whip in the Bengal legislative assembly, were in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, respectively. Both were urging the Bengali people to tell their friends and families back home to vote for the saffron camp in the 2026 assembly polls.

“I told them that if Trinamool Congress wins again then their friends and families will have to migrate as well. We need their help, I said, because this is the last battle for Bengal’s Hindus,” Sarkar told HT over phone while rushing to Jaipur after meeting 30 Bengali families in Kota.

“Even Kota has a Bengali population. Alongside some permanent residents and migrant labourers, who can be found in all states, you will find parents living in rented accommodations with their children who are preparing for IIT-JEE at private institutions Kota is known for,” Sarkar said.

“I found that some of Rajasthan’s permanent Bengali residents entered India from Bangladesh after the 1971 Liberation War. They are aware of the danger illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh pose,” he added.

BJP functionaries said the interactive sessions called ‘Prabashi Bangali Samparka Abhijan’ started around a month before Durga Puja, which began on Sunday.

“I will be leaving for Surat in Gujarat in a few days,” Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya told HT on Sunday.

“This is part of a national programme. There are more than 1.5 million Bengali voters in Delhi. All of them have friends and relatives in Bengal. Our goal is to reach out to all these people. Our general secretary Locket Chatterjeegion has already toured the NCR region,” Bhattacharya said.

“The diaspora is scared of the demographic change taking place in Bengal, especially after the turmoil (fall of the Sheikh Hasina government) in Bangladesh and the communal riots in Murshidabad (Bengal district with the highest Muslim population). Even Bengalis settled abroad are worried,” Bhattacharya said.

“Feedback from the ground tells us that people want BJP to be more proactive. I experienced this while visiting Europe as part of an all-party delegation after the Pahalgam terror attack. To my surprise I found Bengalis in several cities in Denmark, France and England boycotting shops run by Bangladeshis although these are the primary source of fish and mustard oil. In Copenhagen, for example, the Bengalis apologised to me for not being able to serve fish at a lunch they hosted,” said Bhattacharya.

The ongoing campaign in BJP and non-BJP ruled states has been planned meticulously. “Names and addresses of people attending the sessions and those of their friends and relatives in Bengal are all being recorded. Once a non-resident Bengali delivers our message to his people in Bengal, BJP workers meet the latter,” a BJP leader said, requesting anonymity.

“Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers are helping us, especially in the non-BJP ruled states, with their organisational network,” he added.

While addressing the diaspora, the campaigners are approaching people who are listed as voters in Bengal as well as those who have kin and friends in the state. There is a special focus on those who found no sustainable livelihood in Bengal since the TMC’s first victory in 2011.

Former Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha, who recently returned from Haryana, said, “Bengali migrant workers in all the states we have toured so far told us that they will not return home because they earn much more. Some people I met in Haryana even volunteered to campaign for us in 2026,” Sinha said.

TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said that the BJP’s campaign won’t have a dramatic effect on the poll results.

“RSS is playing a pivotal role in this campaign. Most of these are drawing room meetings. BJP is trying to influence people so that they become political influencers in 2026. It only exposes the weakness in the BJP’s organisational strength in Bengal,” he said.

“Such efforts may help BJP secure a few thousand extra votes but will not result in any drastic change in voting pattern. One cannot grow a new crop overnight. For that you have to spend a few years preparing the field,” Majumdar added.