New Delhi: With the Parliament’s winter session wrapped up, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shifted gears into full election mode, eyeing aggressive expansion in eastern and southern India ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
Party insiders reveal a meticulously crafted strategy to bolster its footprint in these regions, crucial for national dominance, involving top leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, newly-appointed national working president Nitin Nabin, and Home Minister Amit Shah.
PM Modi kicked off the eastern push with a two-day visit to West Bengal and Assam on December 20-21, blending development initiatives with political outreach.
In West Bengal, he inaugurated and laid foundation stones for national highway projects worth Rs 3,200 crore while addressing rallies on issues like Bangladeshi infiltration, refugee concerns, and ‘Viksit Bharat’. He took sharp digs at the Trinamool Congress, emphasising development over appeasement.
Party sources indicate Modi has 7-8 more programmes lined up in Bengal over the next two months. In Assam, he unveiled the new terminal at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, paid homage to movement martyrs, and initiated the Assam Valley Fertiliser project’s groundbreaking, tying local pride to progress.
Meanwhile, Nitin Nabin, tasked with southern oversight, embarked on his maiden tour as working president to Puducherry and Chennai. Accompanied by Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, he focused on organisational reviews, cadre interactions, and poll readiness, signalling tighter coordination between the party and the government.
Adding muscle, Amit Shah is slated to visit West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on December 29-30, honing election management tactics. This three-pronged approach — Modi as the development icon, Shah as the strategy maestro, and Nabin as the organisational reviver — underscores the BJP’s view of 2026 not as isolated state battles but as a unified national expansion drive.
As states like West Bengal, Assam, and Tamil Nadu gear up for polls, the party’s intensified activities hint at a high-stakes bid to reshape India’s political map.