A spectre is haunting West Bengal – not of communism or revolution, as Marx once wrote, but of corrosive communalism. Once a bastion of Marxists, the state, known for secular and ideologically-driven politics, is now witnessing an alarming shift towards religious polarisation. In a no-holds-barred battle between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), religious identity is being weaponised to consolidate vote banks, fundamentally altering the state’s political narrative as the 2026 Assembly elections draw near.
Gone are the days when class struggle or development policies dominated discussions. Hindu majoritarianism and minority appeasement are now the twin engines driving West Bengal’s political discourse. From legislative assembly debates to street corners, the rhetoric of religious identity is drowning out conversations on education, healthcare and employment.
Across Bengal, a jarring new sight greets passersby: saffron-hoisted banners proclaiming “Hindu-Hindu, bhai-bhai” (Hindus are brothers), erected by BJP workers indicating this changing political landscape. The slogan, a stark contrast to poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s vision of Hindus and Muslims as “two blooms on one stem”, reduces Bengal’s pluralist legacy to a crude binary.
The script is familiar. Fresh from electoral success in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi, the BJP is once again doubling down on its tried-and-tested formula of Muslim vilification – this time in Bengal.
The party’s aggressive Hindu consolidation strategy reached a fever pitch last week when BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, once seen attending iftars, vowed to “drag minority MLAs of TMC onto the streets” if voted to power. The threat was swiftly met with a retaliatory volley from TMC’s Humayun Kabir, a turncoat who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, declaring, “For me, my party comes second – my community comes first. If my community is attacked, I will not let it go unanswered.”
The exchange lays bare the deepening communal rupture in Bengal’s politics. It is a competition between BJP’s intensified Hindu mobilisation and TMC’s dual approach of positioning itself as a protector against majoritarian aggression while courting Hindu voters through saffron symbolism.
“West Bengal’s politics was once divided by ideology, not religion. The muscle-flexing and communal rhetoric in the Assembly today are unprecedented. Both BJP and Trinamool are stoking tensions outside the House, avoiding accountability. This descent into barbarism is alarming,” says veteran journalist and political analyst Sudipta Sengupta.
The state government’s silence on hate speech is jarring, particularly when contrasted with its zeal to ban films or arrest citizens over social media posts. It is the other two politically diminished opposition parties, the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI[M]), both without Assembly representation, that have stepped in to file cases against Suvendu Adhikari and Humayun Kabir.
“With the upcoming Assembly elections in mind, a deliberate attempt at division has begun within the Assembly itself. Instead of discussing crucial issues like education, healthcare, employment, agriculture, industry, and overall development, the focus has shifted entirely to playing the card of communal division. Mohan Bhagwat, during his visit to Kolkata, laid the blueprint for this strategy, and now it is being executed,” alleges CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim.
The surge in religious rhetoric gained momentum after the 10-day tour of Bengal by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, intended to consolidate Hindu support. BJP is ramping up its campaign around Ram Navami, a festival that, until a few years ago, was celebrated in limited pockets of Bengal but has now transformed into a communal flashpoint and a display of religious muscle power. Adhikari has announced that one crore Hindus would participate in over 20,000 processions across the state.
Not to be outflanked, TMC has also aggressively co-opted Ram Navami as part of its political playbook. Last year, the party signalled this shift by declaring a public holiday for the occasion – a first in Bengal’s history. During the 2023 Lok Sabha campaign high-profile candidates like Birbhum’s Satabdi Roy, Jadavpur’s Sayoni Ghosh and Ghatal’s Dipak Adhikari (Deb) paraded in saffron-draped processions alongside party flags.
“The TMC began capitalising on adding spectacles to lesser-known cultural festivals, but then faced a strong challenge from the BJP, which champions the use of identity politics. With the BJP’s rise, Muslims found the TMC as their new protector. This resulted in rising competitive communalism, reflected in the growth of these two parties at the expense of traditional ‘secular’ blocs like the Left and Congress,” observes anthropologist and author Suman Nath.
The Mamata Banerjee-led government has allocated Rs 250 crore from state coffers to construct a replica of Odisha’s Jagannath Temple in the coastal town of Digha, set to be inaugurated on April 30, the Hindu auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya. Mirroring the Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s consecration spectacle, a Pran Pratishtha ceremony will precede the opening on April 29.
Adhikari, ever the provocateur, questioned whether the temple would adopt Puri’s ban on non-Hindu entry, while announcing a Ram Temple in his Nandigram constituency.
Adding fuel to the fire, Pirzada Toha Siddiqui, a key figure linked to Furfura Sharif’s influential Muslim clerical dynasty, recently demanded the construction of a mosque in Digha to “balance” the temple project. The ‘pirs’ or religious leaders of Furfura Sharif are believed to hold considerable sway over significant sections of Bengali-speaking Muslims Hooghly, Howrah, Murshidabad, Malda and South 24 Parganas. Earlier this week, chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the revered shrine and attended an Iftar party, her first since a strategically timed 2016 pre-election appearance.
“The BJP is openly dividing people along religious lines, while the Trinamool leader is visiting Furfura Sharif to win over the minority community. She is playing a strategic game – not just to secure the minority vote but also to see how much of the Hindu vote she can split,” alleged former Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhury.
“Why weren’t questions asked when I wished everyone during Holi? Just like I wished everyone in Holi I wish everyone Ramadan and pray that everyone’s prayer gets answered,” said Banerjee.
In 2021, Abbas and Nawshad Siddiqui, scions from Furfura Sharif, launched the Indian Secular Front (ISF) to challenge the TMC, aligning with the Left-Congress alliance. Though ISF had limited electoral success, Siddiqui has influenced a section of younger, disenchanted Muslim voters demanding accountability over symbolic gestures. Both brothers were conspicuously absent during Banerjee’s recent visit to their ancestral shrine.
“Minorities aren’t alone, all citizens are suffering. Trinamool and BJP are two sides of the same coin. We need a broader alliance against them in 2026. The Sachar Report exposed minority marginalization since 2011, yet debates are hijacked by religion,” said lone ISF MLA Nawshad Siddiqui.
Based on demographic patterns, around 125-130 out of 294 Assembly seats in the state have a significant Muslim presence (above 25% of the electorate). TMC has retained absolute dominance of this bloc, which constitutes over 30% of the state’s population, though signs of erosion are emerging. The threat now looms with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM announcing plans to contest all 294 seats in the upcoming election, a move that risks splintering Muslim votes and eroding the TMC’s firewall against the BJP.
For 2026, the TMC’s survival hinges on sustaining this duality – portraying itself as the sole guardian of Muslims while mimicking BJP-lite Hindu outreach, even as the politics of division edges Bengal closer to a communal tipping point.
Translated from Bangla by Aparna Bhattarcharya.
