However, on the occasion of Lakshmi Puja on Sunday, Adhikari visited the North Kolkata residence of MP and NCPI leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay at his invitation. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya has made the party’s position clear, saying that the BJP will contest the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election independently and does not need any other party’s support. He was accompanied by Transport Minister Arjun Singh.
There will be no coalition or electoral adjustment with any faction of the Trinamool Congress, according to this position.
The BJP had so far been maintaining a distance from the TMC. They also provide parties with an opportunity to assess their organisational strength beyond Assembly and parliamentary elections. One of the central themes of the BJP’s campaign is the historical and cultural identity of Kolkata and its municipal leadership. The party points to figures such as Chittaranjan Das and Subhas Chandra Bose, who served as mayors of Calcutta, to argue that the city has a distinguished political and intellectual legacy that should be reflected in its civic administration. The BJP’s argument is that Kolkata deserves a mayor who embodies the city’s Bengali identity, middle-class aspirations and historical association with the nineteenth-century Bengal Renaissance. Bobby Hakim, who served as mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, has become part of this political debate. The BJP’s campaign narrative links his prominence to what it describes as Mamata Banerjee’s excessive dependence on Muslim vote-bank politics. The party argues that, given Kolkata’s Hindu majority, the city’s municipal leadership should better reflect its broader Bengali, middle-class and urban character. This is the political thesis the BJP is attempting to advance. It wants to project a Bengali, educated, middle-class and urban face for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, one that can be associated with the city’s historical legacy and intellectual traditions. This creates a dilemma for the BJP. Should it maintain a strict policy of keeping all Trinamool dissidents at a distance, or should it consider making room for individuals who could improve its chances of winning particular wards? There is also a broader question about whether the BJP should engage with dissident groups or political figures associated with different factions of the Trinamool Congress. Names mentioned in this context include Ritabrata and national-level Trinamool leaders such as Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. Whether any such arrangement is politically feasible and what form it might take remains uncertain. A principle frequently emphasised by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during elections is the importance of winnability. Political loyalty and ideological alignment matter, but a party must also consider whether its candidates can actually win. This requires detailed, constituency-level analysis. A candidate who is influential in one ward may not be equally effective in another. Similarly, an individual who has worked within the Trinamool Congress may have developed a local following that could be electorally useful to the BJP, but that possibility must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The party will have to balance its stated ideological position with the practical demands of electoral politics. Local Issues May Matter More Than National Politics The BJP is a pan-Indian party, and its national political identity will inevitably influence the civic campaign. Moreover, after only five months of governance in West Bengal, the new government may still enjoy a degree of political goodwill or a honeymoon period. These issues are likely to remain part of its broader political messaging. At the same time, there is a larger political question: how far should the BJP go in accommodating former Trinamool leaders and councillors? The BJP has presented itself as an alternative to the political culture of the Trinamool Congress. If it begins accepting large numbers of TMC councillors as its own candidates without carefully examining their records, it risks undermining that claim. The concern is not simply whether individual former Trinamool members should be allowed to join the BJP. It is whether the party can retain its own political identity while making pragmatic decisions about candidates. West Bengal has its own political and social characteristics, and the BJP cannot assume that a strategy successful elsewhere will automatically work in the state. Its electoral approach must take account of Bengal’s distinctive political culture, local expectations and the reasons voters supported the party in the first place. The challenge is to distinguish between candidates who can contribute meaningfully to the BJP’s organisation and those whose entry would merely reproduce the political practices the party has criticised. It must demonstrate that its confidence is backed by a credible understanding of local conditions, while ensuring that its candidate-selection strategy does not contradict its public commitment to maintaining a distinct political identity.
Because municipal bodies deal directly with the everyday concerns of urban residents, the elections are politically significant. The civic elections will therefore test the BJP on two fronts. The BJP can draw on its campaign against the previous regime, including allegations of corruption and the anti-incumbency associated with 15 years of Trinamool rule.
Former BJP state president and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar had also said that dissident Trinamool workers may ring the BJP’s doorbell, but the party will not open the door to them. The central question ahead of the civic polls is whether the BJP can expand its electoral strength without becoming a reflection of the very Trinamool political culture it says it wants to replace.
The first phase is expected to cover seven urban local bodies: the Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporations, along with the municipalities of Bally, Haldia, Dhupguri, Kalimpong and Kurseong, according to the election preparations reported so far. The upcoming contest is not limited to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The State Election Commission has been preparing for the polls, although the final schedule remains subject to official notification. However, whether this strategy will resonate with voters remains to be seen. The city’s electoral preferences cannot be determined by cultural symbolism or demographic arguments alone. The Electoral Calculation Behind the BJP’s Public Position Despite its ideological emphasis and its public rejection of political accommodation with the Trinamool Congress, the BJP faces a practical electoral question: can it afford to ignore influential Trinamool councillors who may have strong local support? Several sitting TMC councillors remain politically active and have established their own local networks. They continue to hold their positions after the Assembly elections, and some may have personal support bases that do not depend entirely on the popularity of the Trinamool leadership. The more immediate development, however, concerns individual councillors rather than a formal party-level understanding. The information available suggests that several TMC councillors have been approaching BJP leaders independently, rather than negotiating as a group or on behalf of the Trinamool Congress. This distinction matters. The BJP may publicly reject any arrangement with the Trinamool Congress while still having to decide how to respond when individual councillors seek entry into the party. Suvendu Adhikari’s Role in Candidate Selection Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is likely to play an important role in these electoral calculations. That experience could help the BJP assess which candidates have a realistic chance of winning and which constituencies require a different approach. However, a municipal election is neither a national election nor an Assembly election. It is a local contest in which the everyday experiences of residents can have a decisive influence on voting behaviour. In Kolkata, civic issues are particularly important. Water supply, waterlogging during the monsoon, illegal construction, the influence of real-estate promoters, garbage clearance and the maintenance of parks are all matters that directly affect residents. There are also concerns about the alleged influence of local political networks and the activities of groups described as part of a political or administrative mafia. The extent to which these allegations become campaign issues will depend on the evidence presented and the specific circumstances in each locality. However, the BJP’s approach to these political calculations is likely to be highly strategic, discreet and carefully calibrated. The party may not openly acknowledge any arrangement, even if it decides to explore possibilities behind the scenes. One possibility is that parties belonging to the INDIA alliance reach a seat-sharing agreement and contest the civic elections together. If that happens, the BJP will also have to assess its options ward by ward. It will need to decide whether to maintain its distance from Trinamool Congress dissidents or explore informal understandings with those who have a strong local support base. If a dissident TMC candidate is particularly strong in a particular ward, the BJP may see an electoral advantage in allowing that candidate to contest. Such an arrangement need not necessarily take the form of a formal alliance. The party could, for instance, refrain from fielding a strong candidate in a particular ward while a dissident Trinamool candidate contests independently. In some circumstances, this could weaken the TMC’s electoral position while potentially benefiting the BJP. These are among the possibilities currently being considered. Much will depend on whether the Congress and the Left parties reach an electoral understanding, how the INDIA alliance approaches seat-sharing, and how the BJP assesses its own prospects in individual wards. Time is also a critical factor. If the elections are held towards the end of November, the BJP may have to finalise its strategy during the first two weeks of November. The party cannot afford to delay its decisions for too long, particularly when candidate selection, local alliances and ward-level calculations are involved. There is also a possibility that some candidates may contest officially as independent or dissident Trinamool candidates, even if informal political calculations operate in the background. If the BJP does not have a strong candidate in a particular ward, it may decide that allowing a dissident TMC candidate to contest could serve its broader electoral interests. Such a candidate could potentially divide the Trinamool vote or weaken the party’s local organisation. The BJP’s central leadership in Delhi is also reportedly in touch with some of these individuals. The question is whether these contacts will lead to any concrete electoral arrangements or remain informal discussions. All these possibilities are currently part of the BJP’s wider electoral calculations. Its final strategy will depend on the strength of its own candidates, the possible seat-sharing arrangements among opposition parties, the influence of dissident Trinamool councillors and the political circumstances in each ward. (The author is Contributing Editor, NDTV) Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
Having previously been associated with the Trinamool Congress, he is familiar with many of its leaders, organisational networks and local political equations.
The BJP believes it can perform exceptionally well in the coming civic polls, drawing confidence from its recent electoral performance, including the Assembly by-elections. The real question is whether this confidence is backed by a detailed understanding of the ground situation or is primarily part of the party’s public messaging. The internal electoral strategy will be crucial in determining whether the BJP can translate its political momentum into victories at the municipal level. Is the Trinamool Losing Touch with the Ground? The BJP’s assessment is that the Trinamool Congress leadership in Kalighat, associated with Mamata Banerjee, has become increasingly disconnected from the realities on the ground. The BJP believes that this discontent extends to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, where dissatisfaction with the existing administration could create an opportunity for the opposition. The mayor of Kolkata is, in effect, the city’s first citizen. It wants the nomination to symbolise a return to the civic pride and intellectual traditions associated with nineteenth-century Kolkata. Ward delimitation and the resulting electoral boundaries will be important to this exercise. The party needs to assess the local political balance in each ward, identify areas where its organisation is strong, understand where individual leaders have influence and determine which candidates are best positioned to secure victory. Ultimately, voters are likely to judge the candidates not only by their party affiliations but also by their ability to address these everyday problems. The Question of Trinamool Councillors Who Have Delivered Results The BJP will also have to consider the record of individual Trinamool councillors. Not every councillor can necessarily be judged solely by the performance or political decisions of the party leadership. Some councillors may have done substantial work in their wards, even if they have become disillusioned with the Trinamool Congress or feel that they have been let down by the party. Their local credibility and administrative experience could be relevant to the BJP’s electoral calculations.
The BJP’s public position is therefore unambiguous: it intends to fight the civic elections on its own and does not want to be seen as accommodating disgruntled Trinamool leaders simply to strengthen its electoral prospects. Seven Civic Bodies in the First Phase For the BJP, therefore, the civic polls will be a test not only of its popularity but also of its ability to identify suitable candidates, manage local political equations and address issues that directly affect voters. The BJP therefore sees the choice of its mayoral candidate as more than a routine electoral decision. The BJP’s task, therefore, is to examine the ground situation in each ward rather than rely on a uniform strategy across the city.
The anti-incumbency that has accumulated over 15 years of Trinamool rule remains a significant factor in the political atmosphere, according to this view.
But how much of this confidence reflects the party’s actual internal assessment, and how much is intended to shape public perception before the elections?
