Poriborton resonates, but Bengal’s real test begins for BJP’s deliverance

As the counting of votes continued on the evening of 4 May, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raced ahead in more than 200 seats, dwarfing the Trinamool Congress’s trailing presence of around 80, with others negligible.

This is no incremental gain. It signals a wave that is poised to dismantle chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year citadel.

The discontent against Banerjee’s party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), fuelled by years of alleged corruption, violence, and administrative decay, has finally overwhelmed loyalty to Didi’s welfare architecture.

This verdict builds on a decade of simmering anti-incumbency. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP vaulted to nearly 40% vote share. The 2021 Assembly election saw it secure 77 seats with a similar vote share, establishing itself as the principal opposition but falling short of presenting a viable alternative.

By the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP held steady around that mark, while the TMC clung to power with its entrenched machinery.

On Monday, the script flipped. The BJP has not merely ridden resentment; it has weaponized it into a coherent narrative of poriborton, or real, feasible change.

Promises to retain and enhance schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar under the banner of Annapurna Bhandar, doubling assistance to ₹3,000 monthly, neutralized TMC scare campaigns that painted the BJP as a wrecker of women-centric welfare. Ground-level mobilization, door-to-door reassurance, and targeted outreach dismantled the TMC’s core vote banks.

The arithmetic of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, which deleted over 9 million names, many allegedly dubious or absentee, added fuel, although its precise on-ground impact remains a matter of debate.

What is undeniable is the disruption of TMC’s social engineering. Muslim votes splintered toward Congress and others in districts like Malda and Murshidabad, enabling BJP gains even without direct support.

More critically, women voters shifted noticeably, lured by credible assurances on financial aid amid broader fatigue with TMC’s governance failures.

This split extends to the so-called secular Hindu middle class, long wary of BJP’s ideological edge. Bengal, the birthplace of Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, witnessed an ideological homecoming: the BJP has breached this demographic, forging a broader Hindu consolidation without total alienation.

Yet, euphoria must yield to realism. This historic milestone in the BJP’s Go-East mission—conquering the last major eastern bastion—carries immense expectations.

The people have voted for development, jobs, and industries, not mere regime change. Decades of economic stagnation since the Left era of the late 1990s, compounded by TMC’s alleged syndicate raj and intimidation politics, have scarred the state. Unemployment festers; educated youth migrate in droves.

Restoring a work culture eroded by political patronage and violence demands more than rhetoric. The business community views Bengal as hostile terrain, haunted by images of forcible land acquisitions, political muscle, and policy flip-flops. Attracting capital requires ironclad law and order, swift clearances, and credible incentives—none easy in a state where local strongman culture runs deep.

The underbelly of Bengal’s politics poses the gravest test. Violence and intimidation, inherited by TMC from the Left’s cadre raj, transcend parties. Many foot soldiers owe allegiance to power, not ideology.

As TMC influence wanes, these elements may pivot to the BJP, perpetuating the same cycle of threats at the grassroots. Controlling booth-level muscle while pursuing development is a delicate, high-stakes balancing act.

The BJP must resist the temptation of short-term consolidation through inherited networks and instead build parallel structures rooted in governance and inclusivity. Failure here risks squandering the mandate, turning poriborton into mere musical chairs.

Bengal’s voters have placed faith in the BJP’s vision. They seek industries that generate jobs, not rhetoric; safety that empowers women beyond schemes; and a revival of Kolkata’s intellectual and commercial soul.

Delivering this requires a roadmap as sharp as the campaign: transparent recruitment, skill development aligned with market needs, infrastructure blitz, and zero tolerance for political violence.

The road is arduous, littered with entrenched interests and structural decay. But for a party that has rewritten India’s political map, this is the moment of truth. Bengal’s poriborton has begun; its success will define whether the vibes translate into enduring transformation. The people wait—not for slogans, but results.

Sayantan Ghosh is a professor of mass communication at St Xavier's College, Kolkata.