Operation Sindoor and the Battle for Bengal: Modi vs Mamata in Early 2026 Poll Push

The election fever seems to have hit West Bengal earlier than usual this year. With close to a year remaining before the 2026 Assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent public rally in north Bengal and the subsequent reaction by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have kick-started preparations for the battle for Bengal, setting the tone for upcoming electoral campaigns in the State. Apart from the usual issues of corruption, misrule, law and order, and politics of appeasement, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now brought new weapons to its arsenal to take on the ruling Trinamool Congress—Operation Sindoor, “Vikshit Bharat” (Developed India), and the attacks on Hindus in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district during recent anti-Waqf Act protests.

On May 29, while Trinamool Lok Sabha MP and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was garnering support for India against Pakistan as part of an all-party delegation for India’s global outreach on Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool government while addressing a public rally in Alipurduar district in north Bengal. Though still very early to launch an electoral campaign for the Assembly election, Modi’s speech left little doubt that the BJP had shifted into election gear.

While he attacked Mamata Banerjee’s government on familiar issues—corruption, the School Service Commission recruitment scam that resulted in more than 25,000 teachers losing their jobs, misrule, law and order, and alleged appeasement politics—the subjects that took centre stage were the success of Operation Sindoor and the promise of “Vikshit Bharat” by 2047.

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Referring to the Durga Puja tradition of “Sindoor khela” (where married women apply vermilion on each other on the last day of Durga Puja), Modi said, “I have come to the land that celebrates Sindoor Khela… People of Bengal were very angry after the terror attack in Pahalgam, and I could understand your anger. The terrorists wiped out our sisters’ sindoor, but soldiers taught them the power of sindoor.”

He said that Pakistan, which indulges in “terror tactics” after failing in battle, has been made to understand that there is a “price to pay” for a terror strike. In the same rally, BJP State president and junior Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar spoke of his party carrying out “Operation Bengal” in the coming days. “I can see thousands of workers in front of me, and they will carry out ‘Operation Bengal’ like ‘Operation Sindoor’. They will uproot the government from this State and throw it into the Bay of Bengal,” Majumdar said.

It soon became clear that Operation Sindoor would be central to the Bengal election campaign when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reacted with her customary belligerence and attacked the Prime Minister for using military action against Pakistan as an election tool. “Pahalgam and Operation Sindoor have become election issues that are being brought up in rallies… Why haven’t the terrorists responsible for wiping the sindoor from the women been arrested yet? They are playing politics with a serious issue, and that is unacceptable,” Mamata said soon after Modi’s speech.

Launching a personal attack on Modi, she said, “First he was a tea seller, then a chowkidar, and now he is selling sindoor… You are not the husband of everybody. Why don’t you give sindoor to your missus first? Sorry to say. I should not go into all these matters. But you compel us in the name of Operation Sindoor (when your party men refer to) Operation Bengal. You compel us to open our mouths.” She challenged Modi to announce an early election. “If you have the power, then hold the elections tomorrow itself. Bengal will never fall into the hands of the BJP,” she said, refuting the Prime Minister’s allegations. Two days later, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing a party workers’ meeting in Kolkata on June 1, alleged that Mamata Banerjee was opposed to Operation Sindoor in line with her politics of Muslim appeasement.

Politics over Operation Sindoor intensified further when on June 10, the West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed a resolution lauding the Indian armed forces in their recent battle with Pakistan. “This house commends the coordinated efforts of the different wings of the Indian Armed Forces in targeting with absolute precision and destroying major terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and places on record its gratitude and appreciation for their relentless efforts in protecting the pride and dignity of the nation,” the resolution read.

However, Mamata also came down heavily on the Union government for failing to pre-empt the terror strike in Pahalgam, not apprehending the perpetrators, missing the “opportunity” to capture PoK, and failing to prevent Pakistan from getting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan.

The BJP countered by pointing out that the term Operation Sindoor was conspicuously absent. Labelling it as an attempt to deliberately undermine the armed forces’ operation, Leader of the Opposition, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari said, “Why is there an objection to the word ‘Sindoor’ in the proposal? Why is the name missing?” Days before the resolution was passed, Trinamool MLA Narendranath Chakraborty from Pandaveswar in Paschim Bardhaman stirred controversy when he claimed that Operation Sindoor was a “pre-planned drama, a game in the name of war.”

Political observers have pointed out that the issue of conflict with Pakistan has repeatedly served the BJP well in both State and union elections; this time too, the saffron party intends to make full political use of the strikes against Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack. Veteran political observer Biswajit Bhattacharya noted, “While the BJP hopes that Operation Sindoor will work as a key factor in the West Bengal election, its more immediate concern is the Bihar Assembly election.

By raising the issue of Operation Sindoor so early in Bengal, the BJP is killing two birds with one stone—it is going for a head start in campaigning here, and it is also addressing the substantial number of voters from Bihar who work in Bengal and return to the State during elections. Also, conflict with Pakistan has played a key role in several of BJP’s electoral triumphs—be it the Uri surgical strike in 2016 or the Balakot airstrike in 2019. However, in 2024, they did not get the same results with the Ram Mandir issue. So, the BJP is banking on Operation Sindoor this time.”

Communal disharmony

The BJP also hopes to capitalise on growing polarisation along communal lines, particularly after the flare-up in Murshidabad, where Hindus, who are a minority in the district, were attacked during anti-Waqf Act protests across the State. Calling Mamata’s government a “nirmamata” (lacking in sympathy) government, Modi said, “In the name of appeasement, lawlessness was allowed free sway (in Murshidabad and Malda). Imagine the horror when members of the ruling party, including an MLA, identified and burned down houses of people and the police stood by watching… Can a government continue in this fashion?” Mamata stuck to her party’s claim that the communal flare-up was the BJP’s doing.

“What happened at Malda and Murshidabad was done by the BJP. The BJP is an expert in starting riots, and I can provide documentation and evidence of that. Bengal has a humane government, while Modi’s is a corrupt government,” she said. However, a three-member fact-finding committee set up by the Calcutta High Court to investigate the Murshidabad riots mentioned in its report that local Trinamool leaders, including an MLA, were indeed present at the site of the violence.

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According to psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty, though still quite early, the agenda for the coming election in Bengal has already been set. “Modi has set the agenda for the 2026 Assembly election in the State. Alongside the issues of misgovernance and corruption, he has introduced two new aspects—the issue of nationalism, riding on Operation Sindoor; and the vision of Vikshit Bharat by 2047. The point he made was that when India is aiming to become a developed nation by 2047, West Bengal cannot afford to be left behind, and Mamata has failed to develop the State. At the same time, we can also expect that Hindutva politics will be projected in a huge way, particularly with reference to the Murshidabad riots,” he told Frontline.

For all the issues at the BJP’s disposal against the ruling party, the saffron party is still trailing a very distant second behind Trinamool when it comes to political influence in the State. Its organisation remains much to be desired, and even in its stronghold of north Bengal, it is losing ground. In fact, just two weeks before Modi’s public rally in Alipurduar, former BJP MP and Union Minister John Barla, one of the most influential tribal leaders from the tea gardens of the region, joined Trinamool, claiming that the BJP had done little for the development of north Bengal.

Moreover, even as Modi and Mamata exchange barbs, the argument that there exists a “secret understanding” between the BJP at the Centre and its erstwhile ally, the Trinamool, continues to gain strength in the State. The apparent foot-dragging by central investigating agencies in probes against the Trinamool, and the latter’s perceived cooperation with the Centre behind a mask of animosity in Parliament, are not the only justifications for such suspicion. A week before Modi visited the State, former BJP State president Tathagata Roy himself had hinted at the possibility of a “setting” between the Centre and the State in a social media post. He had, of course, clarified that he was not “certain” about the existence of such an understanding. The coming days may perhaps shed more light on it.