One hundred days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule in West Bengal, a consequential battle is unfolding in the State within the BJP itself.
By taking oath as Bengal’s first BJP Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari inherited a State that had voted for rupture. Voters rejected extortion, strongmen, patronage, unreliable employment, and the migration of young Bengalis. The mandate carried special weight for the BJP, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which had spent decades building an organisation in the State when electoral power seemed distant.
Yet Bengal has changed political colour faster than political culture. Trinamool offices, auto and e-rickshaw stands once controlled by Trinamool workers now carry BJP flags; strongmen who once stood beside Trinamool legislators now appear beside BJP leaders. The contradiction is stark: Mr. Adhikari who promised to dismantle Mamata Banerjee’s political system, is consolidating power by absorbing the very same system and networks.
This has created a contest between three forces within the party: the Sangh, seeking ideological continuity; Samik Bhattacharya, the State BJP president, seeking restraint; and Mr. Adhikari, whose instincts were shaped inside the Trinamool.
Three-pronged battle
The RSS’s concern is rooted in memory and sacrifice. Its cadres spent decades building the BJP in Bengal, amid violence and isolation. For them, victory was supposed to begin a different political culture.
However, the Chief Minister sees Bengal differently. Power does not reside only in the Assembly or secretariat but in clubs, booths, contractors, transport networks, and strongmen. Bengal has repeatedly shown that while political personnel can change parties, networks survive: Congress moved to the Left, the Left to Trinamool, and now sections of that ecosystem are moving to the BJP. This is where political scientist Dwaipayan Bhattacharya’s concept of “party society” becomes crucial — in Bengal, the political party has historically become the principal mediator between citizens, institutions and the State. The CM understands this; his strategy is not to destroy the party society but to inherit it as it consolidates power the fastest.
Mr. Bhattacharya has tried to draw boundaries. He warned cadres against extortion, indiscipline, and misuse of the BJP’s name. The party has expelled more than 30 leaders and suspended around 250 over allegations involving corruption, extortion, and anti-party activity. But victory’s political energy is fast outrunning organisational restraint.
The contradiction is sharper in the BJP’s handling of the Trinamool Congress. While the party says its doors are closed, three former Trinamool Rajya Sabha members have joined the BJP and received nominations immediately. In Parliament, around 20 rebel Trinamool MPs have merged with the Nationalist Citizen Party of India, which in turn, is desperate to merge with the BJP, making claims of distance difficult to sustain.
Mr. Adhikari’s play here is strategic as Ms. Bannerjee cannot rebuild her organisation if her leaders are absorbed and networks are transferred. For the RSS, however, the harder question is whether absorbing Trinamool networks also means absorbing their habits. Grassroots workers are unsettled; BJP cadres now see former adversaries accommodated as Bhalo Trinamool (good Trinamool). For those who lost homes, livelihoods, and family members during the Trinamool rule, rehabilitation can look like betrayal.
Disrupter or custodian?
A party can absorb individuals without becoming the party they came from. However, inheriting its methods, networks, and political instincts is different.
These 100 days are more than a report card on Mr. Adhikari’s government. They mark an argument over what the Bengal BJP will become. For the Sangh, victory vindicated decades of work. For Mr. Bhattacharya, it was supposed to create a disciplined alternative. For the CM, the priority is ensuring that the Trinamool cannot recover. All three can coexist for now. They may not coexist forever.
The danger is that, in seeking permanence rather than merely victory, the BJP may preserve, instead of disrupt, the political system that made the Trinamool powerful. Bengal has changed its government; the harder question is whether the BJP will change the system it inherited or simply become its new custodian.
Sayantan Ghosh teaches at St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, and is the author of Battleground Bengal and The Aam Aadmi Party’
Published – September 01, 2026 12:55 am IST
