As of now, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is arguably the biggest political party of the Indian nation in terms of the highest number of seats in the Parliament (300 in the Lok Sabha and 95 in the Rajya Sabha) and the maximum state Assemblies under its rule and also its gigantic register of 110 million party members. With 12 states directly under its political sway and 6 other states in the hand of its political allies under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP is currently at its mightiest moment of glory. However, the party has a big challenge before itself in 2021. It is fighting, for the first time to win, the Assembly Election in West Bengal, a State which is historically considered a Left-ideological bastion, even so under the current dispensation of Mamata Banerjee. A State which has the second largest share of Muslims (27 per cent according to Census 2011) in any state in India, only after Assam (34 per cent according to Census 2011); a State where it was and is fiercely opposed by its political rivals cutting across the party lines. Therefore, this West Bengal Assembly Election is not just another election for the BJP. The win here can have serious ramifications in favour of the party throughout the country in years and times to come. BJP knows the consequences quite well, and so do its political rivals, hence the concerted effort on its part to win Bengal against its club of opponents bidding desperately to resist it.

West Bengal, alongside Kerala, has remained the political-ideological fountainhead of Marxist politics and thought in India. The reign of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI (M) incredibly lasted for 34 years (1977-2011) at a stretch. This factor cemented the Communist grip on the Bengali society at large. All institutions and bodies under the State Government were occupied by the Left so as to exclusively shape public discourses according to the Left ideology. In this respect, one can recall the example Arun Shourie cited in his famous book Eminent Historians. The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education had issued a circular, bearing the number ‘Syl/89/1’ and dated 28 April of 1989, explaining to all the schools the way the History textbooks recommended by the Board for Class IX had been thoroughly amended. The list of amendments attached to the circular made it clear that history textbooks would remove all the religious atrocities of the Muslim rulers on the Hindus and project the Islamic rule as tolerant and benevolent towards the Hindus. The ‘party society’ of West Bengal, as it was assessed in the past, was completely under the ‘care’ and regulation of the all-mighty ruling Communist party who used to intervene in every sphere of the urban and rural life of the State. Its election success was largely attributed to its regimented party cadres which often applied the concept called ‘scientific rigging’ in elections – something which was hard to prove but difficult to deny. The Communist party had so mastered the election arithmetic, the intelligentsia and the public discourses that it could easily normalise any notion of abnormality at any stage of the governance.

Mamata Banerjee has been credited with bringing the downfall of the CPI(M) regime, though much of the credit also goes to the CPI(M) itself as the party became internally rotten due to its oversize, infighting, and corruption. Although Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) party were supposed to be the political Right as against the political Left, they gradually became the upgraded version of that Left itself over the years. She is often sarcastically regarded as the ‘best student’ of the political school of Leftism. As against the high hopes of the people of the state, Didi (as she likes to be called) and her party have only recast the Left style of politics of the past in the present, in much more dreaded mould and naked effectiveness.

In her regime, West Bengal has become the undisputed topper in the national ranking of election-violence. The State, which once used to be in the news for its art and culture, now redefines the level and nature of violence during elections to the rest of the country. Besides election fiascos, the state has become a safe haven for Islamic terrorism over the recent years. Several terror modules, linked to even Al-Qaeda, have been busted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), but much have gone unheeded or remained unproven due to the lack of political cooperation in the state where the ruling party crudely encashes the large Muslim vote-bank while the opposition parties such as the Left and the Congress equally greedily vie for it.

As a result, West Bengal has remained a state still ruled by the so-called Left-liberal ideology. The essential core of this ideology is, as it appears to be, to stand against anything that is pro-Hindu, pro-nationalistic, pro-Indic and, by contrast, normalise Islamic radicalism by projecting Islam as the religion of the poor, oppressed, and underprivileged in the Hindu (they would say, Brahmin or upper caste) dominated society. This ideology has been running unabated in Bengal since the Left-rule in 1977, due to the political patronage of the so-called ‘secular’ parties who depend heavily on the Muslim votes and the simultaneous segregation of the Hindus on caste and party lines. Again, most of the Left intelligentsia including writers, artists, professors, and activists have switched allegiance to the TMC after the change of power in 2011, ensuring the continuation of this ideology at institutional levels.

As a direct result of the two factors mentioned above, serious allegations such as covert Islamisation of the school syllabuses and recruitment of Muslims to government jobs on the merit of religion through a reservation-category called the OBC(A) have come to the fore. It is this ideology that still rules the roost in the academic campuses such as the notorious ‘tukde tukde gang’ in some premier universities in the State. The violent anti-CAA mayhem in the State was also engineered allegedly by these forces, hand in hand with the Islamic jihadis, with the seemingly approving nod of the ruling TMC often dangerously provoking violence and lawlessness.

The Hindu anxiety has, therefore, become a vital issue in the State election as never before – an issue BJP must take on boldly for the State, the people, and itself

West Bengal is, therefore, an ideological block before the BJP. It has to overcome this block as the win here is bound to have serious ramifications in other sectors of challenge. BJP is not unaware of this reality. Opposition parties heavily bank on Mamata Banerjee, who dreams to be the face of the national anti-BJP bandwagon, and thus oxygenate the Congress-Left bogie as the main ideological rival of the BJP by ensuring her win in West Bengal. The alliance of the CPI (M) and Congress in the state is working in this direction and splitting the Hindu votes wherever it is necessary to make sure that BJP loses. However, their alliance with the Islamic force, Indian Secular Front (ISF) of the controversial pirzada Abbas Siddiqui, done in the hope of winning Muslim votes, has only consolidated the numerically shrinking 70 per cent Hindus, most of whom or whose ancestors are refugees fled from the erstwhile East Pakistan and also from the current Bangladesh for religious persecution. They are fearful of the repeat of history and a dark future under a possible Muslim majority (currently 27 per cent in the state and growing by 1.77 per cent against the Hindu decline by 1.94 per cent, according to Census 2011). To them, BJP appears to be the last hope. The Hindu anxiety has, therefore, become a vital issue in the State election as never before – an issue BJP must take on boldly for the State, the people, and itself. The party’s current stance and possible success, on the day of result i.e., May 2, 2021, can reshape the political discourse of West Bengal forever.