West Bengal after Northeast and Bihar: How BJP expanded in difficult terrain with ‘outsiders’ | India News
D BJPSubvendu Adhikari’s elevation as the first chief minister in West Bengal marked the end of a campaign that had propelled the party to victory in a state long described as the “final frontier”.“As in the neighboring Northeast, the BJP’s rise to power in West Bengal was led by a man who joined the BJP from an opposition party. Changed from Adhikari grassroots The Congress (TMC) went on to defeat its former mentor, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee twice in December 2020 – first in her Nandigram stronghold in 2021 and later in her Bhavanipur base in the recent assembly elections.
Subhendu Adhikari
With Adhikari’s promotion, the BJP has officially bagged one of its most prominent recent entrants in West Bengal, underscoring the party’s continued reliance on “outsiders” to win the politically tough region.
BJP success in West Bengal
Adhikari’s inclusion is one of several defections from the Trinamool to the BJP in the run-up to the 2021 West Bengal elections. With the BJP riding high after winning a record 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, and battling anti-incumbency “Didi” after a decade in power, several TMC leaders have joined the saffron camp, confident of a change of guard in Kolkata.It wasn’t meant to be though. The BJP’s share of seats in the 294-member assembly rose from just three to 77, but the Trinamool won 215 seats for the third consecutive term. As a result, several TMC turncoats returned to their original party, while some BJP MLAs also switched sides.
West Bengal Assembly Election 2021 Result
Nevertheless, Adhikari remained and was appointed Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. He subsequently became more aggressive in his attacks on Banerjee and the TMC.In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP faced another setback in West Bengal, falling from 18 constituencies to 12, while the Trinamool Congress improved its tally from 23 to 29. The state was among the few where the BJP lost ground, contributing to a decline of 303 to 240 seats nationally and forcing the party to rely on allies to form government at the Centre.The BJP regained momentum in the following months, winning several state elections, before eventually winning a landslide victory in West Bengal.
Bihar before West Bengal
Adhikari’s elevation comes less than a month after that of Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Chowdhury, who, like him, did not start his political career in the BJP. Chaudhary joined the party from the Janata Dal (United) in 2017, after earlier stints with the Samata Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).Son of veteran politician Shakuni Chowdhury, Samrat Chowdhury succeeded Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo who led the state for more than two decades. Following the re-election of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the November 2025 Bihar elections, Kumar returned for a record 10th term as CM, with Chowdhury serving as one of his deputies.
Bihar Election Results
However, there were already signs of a change in leadership. In addition to Kumar’s apparent failing health, the BJP has, for the first time, become the largest party in Bihar, making the change of guard in Patna a question of “when” and not “if”.
Nitish Kumar’s retirement
That “when” was answered when Kumar announced last month that he would return to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha, paving the way for the BJP to take over as chief minister in Bihar for the first time.
BJP’s north-east hill
Before the BJP broke through in West Bengal and emerged as the largest party in Bihar, it was the party’s first stronghold in the Northeast, starting with its victory in Assam in 2016.Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma is widely seen as the architect of this hegemony in the Northeast. A former Congress leader who joined the BJP in 2015, Sarma was instrumental in the party’s victory in Assam the following year. While Sarbanand Sonowal became the first BJP chief minister in the state, Sarma took over after the party retained power in 2021, with Sonowal moving to the Union Cabinet. In the recent assembly elections, the BJP under Sarma won 82 seats in the 126-member assembly, crossing its majority mark for the first time and a third consecutive term in power.Like Sarma, several current or former BJP chief ministers in the Northeast had joined the party shortly before being elevated to the top post. For example, Pema Khandu, Manik Saha and N Biren Singh, among others, were with the Congress before defecting to the BJP in 2016, but later led BJP governments in their respective states.
exception
The strategy of inducting outsiders and promoting them to key positions, however politically difficult, has not worked for the BJP in every state.In Punjab, former Congress MP Sunil Zakhar joined the BJP in May 2022 and was appointed the party’s state unit president a little over a year later. However, the strategy failed to pay electoral dividends. In the 2024 general elections, the BJP failed to open its account in Punjab and even lost two seats it had won in 2019 in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. Later, reports surfaced in September that Zakhar had resigned from the post, but the BJP denied the claims and continued to serve as the party’s Punjab unit chief. He faces an uphill task in making the BJP a serious contender in Punjab ahead of the February 2027 elections, where the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress remain the two main contenders.In a major blow to AAP, seven of its Rajya Sabha MPs – including Raghav Chadha – joined the BJP last month. All seven MPs were elected from Punjab, and the BJP hopes their inclusion will strengthen its chances in the state.Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the BJP has failed to return to power despite inducting former chief minister Champai Soren, who defected from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ahead of the 2024 assembly elections.
Punjab: Next test of BJP’s ‘external’ model
With the BJP’s rise to power in West Bengal, Jharkhand now stands as the only remaining eastern state outside its control alongside Mizoram in the northeast. Its rise in non-Hindi-speaking states, particularly West Bengal, including Odisha where it formed its first government in June 2024 under Swadeshi leader Mohan Charan Majhi, has helped the party shed its image of being confined to Hindi centers.The “external” model would next be tested in Punjab, where the BJP was part of a coalition government but never ruled by itself.
