How the BJP finally won in West Bengal after years of trying

By Amrita DasGupta, PhD Candidate, Department of Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London

With a population of more than 100 million, West Bengal is the fourth largest state in India. It has always been an important target for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), but despite the electoral success of Narendra Modi’s party across the whole country in recent years, West Bengal always bucked the trend.

Rather than buy into Modi’s Hindu nationalist vision, Bengali voters have traditionally been influenced by a strong sense of regional identity. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool…

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