By God! The Modi-Mamata political battle in West Bengal is taking off

New Indian Express

4 days ago

Jai Shri Ram didn't quite deliver for the BJP in West Bengal these last ten years. So, Narendra Modi has changed tactics. He is now roping in two very Bengali goddesses to help him with the Assembly elections in the state in 2026.
Jai Ma Durga, Jai Ma Kali – that's what he chanted at a rally at Durgapur last week, invocations he has never used like this in West Bengal in the past. In 2024, he did use the Ma Durga name once after the Sandeshkhali scandal of sex abuse and land grab: he described the women of Sandeshkhali as Ma Durgas. But that didn't do the trick. He has now pulled out the double engine Bengali deities Durga and Kali in the hope of slaying his demon in West Bengal.
Not one to let grass grow under her feet, Mamata Banerjee has cooked up a counter strategy. At a mega rally in Kolkata this Monday, she declared she has already secured Lord Jagannath's blessings by building a temple to him at Digha; she is now planning to bag Ma Durga's by building her a permanent home – Durgangan where Durga Puja will be on exhibition all year round.
This, she possibly believes, will ensure the goddess would never leave her side for the BJP. She knows everyone knows she holds Kali Puja at her home every year and will think up some propitiatory ploy to woo her as well in the coming months. Perhaps this Diwali.
This ungodly tug of war over gods and goddesses is something West Bengal is learning to get used to. In 34 years of Communist rule in the state, from 1977 to 2011, the deployment of deities in political battles or another now-common phenomenon, the deification of politicians, was unthinkable. But once Mamata Banerjee came to power, Bengal took to it like ducks to water.
Testing the waters, in 2014, Mamata Banerjee set up a wax museum in Kolkata housing wax idols of Bengal's greatest sons and daughters and there, along with those of Netaji and Swami Vivekananda. Mamata Banerjee, too, was cast in wax, seated at her vast Chief Ministerial desk. The queues that waited to see her likeness are legendary. However, apparently because she did not think it was a very good likeness, her image was removed and never restored.
But then came Modi in Delhi and with him the snowballing of the Lord Ram iconography in the political field. And the next thing we know in Bengal, in 2016, a 10-armed Mamata Banerjee idol was sharing a pandal with the clay image of the Goddess Durga during the Pujas.
Truth be told, this kind of blatant deification never really took off but deification by other names became the norm. Mamata Banerjee painting the third eye of the Durga idol at Durga Puja inaugurations and fluently reciting holy mantras at the drop of a hat have now become a part of Kolkata's Durga Puja iconography.
The results of the deification of politician in the political arena are there for all to see. The atheist Communists are out, so also the secular Congress. And the two main contenders for power in the state – Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi – are resorting to every trick in the book to forge ahead.
Remember Amit Shah and Modi dashing from Delhi to Kolkata like daily passengers before the 2021 Assembly elections, to their numerous public rallies, with their favourite slogan, Jai Shri Ram, which Mamata Banerjee labelled a war cry? Her wheelchair-borne 'khelahobay' missile dashed Shah's dreams of 'do sau paar' or 200-plus seats. In 2024, the BJP's tally of MPs plummeted from 18 to 12.
For 11 years since Modi became Prime Minister and set his sights on Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's home state, the BJP has been hunting without luck for a formula for success. But the shift from Lord Ram to Ma Durga and Ma Kali this time could be a giant leap in the right direction.
Rebranding Hindutva
The new strategy was unveiled on July 5 when Shamik Bhattacharya, BJP Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, was appointed the president of the state unit of the party. At his inauguration, Bhattacharya did something no one had ever before. On the backdrop on stage, beside images of Modi, Mookerjee and other regular BJP icons, an image of Goddess Kali took centrestage.
Another first, chants of Jai Shri Ram were interspersed in equal measure and vigour with Jai Ma Kali.
This goddess is worshipped with pomp every year in Bengal at the same time as Diwali. But she is also worshipped daily in most Bengali homes where a photo of the goddess is adorned with a fresh garland of the trademark red hibiscus every day. For the devout, the Kalighat temple, Dakshineswar and Tarapith are regular pilgrimage sites. In short, Goddess Kali is big for Bengalis.
The BJP has latched on to that. This July, what has unfolded is the rebranding of BJP's north Indian Lord Ram dominated Hindutva for a Bengali audience with a distinctly different taste in deities. Also promoted, the fact that son of the soil Mookerjee is also the founding father of the BJP, so BJP's roots are deeply Bengali.
The Trinamool has labelled all this a gimmick and may well be backing a subterranean campaign questioning how the BJP, whose supporters mock Bengalis for guzzling fish curry, egg roll and chicken biryani during the Durga Puja that coincides with the Navratra period, will deal with the fact that Ma Kali celebrations include the consumption of alcohol and meat. This was made unforgettable by the redoubtable TMC MP Mohua Moitra who went so far as to claim Ma Kali even enjoyed a good smoke.
The 2026 Assembly polls could be do or die for the BJP. Mamata Banerjee is sure to ensure the BJP's Bengaliyana is put to tough tests during Durga Puja and Kali Puja this September-October. For Bengal's voters, the elections will be much more than about voting for the politician they prefer. Even the gods and goddesses will be watching.