Suvendu Adhikari vs Mamata Banerjee: BJP’s Bengal Gambit
Image credit X.com @SuvenduWB
The man who defeated Mamata by 1,956 votes in 2021 is now being fielded on two fronts simultaneously — as BJP bets that keeping Trinamool’s supremo permanently on the defensive is the smartest path to power in West Bengal 2026.
By NIRENDRA DEV
Kolkata, March 16, 2026 — He defeated her once by 1,956 votes — a margin so thin it still stings in Trinamool Congress circles. Now Suvendu Adhikari is being sent after Mamata Banerjee on two fronts at once.
In its most aggressive electoral declaration since the 2021 polls, the BJP on Monday announced it would field Adhikari against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in both Nandigram and Bhawanipore — the two constituencies that define her political identity most sharply. The message from BJP’s central leadership is unambiguous: keep Mamata permanently under pressure, force her to fight for her own survival, and deny her the space to campaign freely across West Bengal.
“I defeated her in Nandigram. This time I will defeat her in Bhawanipore as well. I will make her a former Chief Minister by a margin of 50,000 votes,” Adhikari has said on multiple occasions — a line he has clearly been authorised to repeat.
The numbers from 2021 that haunt Trinamool
In Nandigram in 2021, Adhikari polled 1,10,764 votes — 48.49 percent of the total — against Mamata Banerjee’s 1,08,808 votes, or 47.64 percent. The margin was razor-thin but the symbolism was devastating. Mamata had chosen Nandigram — the very seat of the agrarian uprising that launched her to power in 2011 — to make her personal stand. She lost it to her own former lieutenant.
She subsequently won a by-election in Bhawanipore in south Kolkata to retain her Chief Ministership. That constituency is now Adhikari’s second target. Notably in 2021 by-election the BJP had increased its vote share to over 35 per cent in Bhawanipore.
The Lotus party is banking in 2026 on the cosmopolitan character of the constituency with a large number of Gujaratis, Marwaris, Sikhs and Biharis.
The first list: a statement of intent
BJP’s first candidate list for West Bengal 2026 extends well beyond the Adhikari-Mamata confrontation. Former BJP state president and ex-MP Dilip Ghosh has been fielded from Kharagpur Sadar in Paschim Medinipur. Biman Mahto will contest from Salboni in the same district. Agnimitra Paul has been given Asansol Dakshin, Krishnendu Mukherjee Asansol Uttar. Swapan Dasgupta — former Rajya Sabha MP and one of BJP’s most recognisable intellectual voices — has been named from Rasbehari in south Kolkata.
Other candidates include Sumita Sinha from Kanthi Uttar, Madhavi Mahalder from Kultali in South 24 Parganas, Bapan Ghosh from Kaliganj, Dipak Kumar Halder from Diamond Harbour, Sukumar Roy from Coochbehar Uttar and Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri.
The Bengal that BJP is betting on
Beyond the candidates, the party is counting on a deeper social shift that has been building for years. Monodip Sarkar, an IT professional from Bengaluru originally from Bengal, gives voice to a sentiment heard increasingly among non-resident Bengalis: “The decline of Bengal did not happen overnight. The seeds were sown during the 34-year Left Front rule between 1977 and 2011. TMC only deepened it. Today, I am happiest being a non-resident Bengali.”
Over the past decade, BJP has methodically expanded beyond its traditional upper-caste, middle-class Hindu — or Bhadralok — base. The party has built significant presence among Rajbongshis, Matuas, Namasudras, smaller Adivasi groups, Gorkhas and even Christians. Resentment over allegations that Muslim communities cornered a disproportionate share of OBC quota benefits has added further fuel — making BJP, for a growing number of voters, less a party of conviction than a vehicle of protest against entrenched power.
That, combined with a giant killer on a double mission, is the wager BJP is placing on Bengal 2026.
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