Column: Bengal campaign row may cast a long shadow over Modi after the polls

A column written before the last phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha election argued that the BJP may have hurt itself in West Bengal, and that the Election Commission’s decision to cut short campaigning in the state had handed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee an advantage.

The column’s case

The writer said the Commission’s move to end campaigning early for the final phase, but only after Narendra Modi had finished his scheduled rallies, looked partisan. Banerjee, the column said, had since invoked Bengali pride, attacked Modi and Amit Shah in very personal terms, and cast herself as the underdog taking on two giants. She attacked the Commission’s decision, which the column described as the first use of Article 324 in this manner since Independence.

Nine seats were left to vote in the last phase. The column said the BJP had hopes in at least two of them, Dumdum and North Kolkata, where it was counting on support from non-Bengali migrants, but analysts believed the curbs could help the Trinamool Congress win all nine.

It made three main points: that Modi’s constant attacks had raised Banerjee’s stature beyond that of a regional leader; that the row had let her play the victim; and that her Bengali nationalism pitch had finally found takers after a bust of the reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during Shah’s roadshow in Kolkata. Intellectuals joined a protest rally the next day.

Possible effect on allies

The column suggested that regional leaders elsewhere would be watching, and that if the BJP fell short of a majority, the episode could make it harder to find new partners. It recalled that in 1996 Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the largest party but could not muster a majority. It also claimed that NDA allies such as the JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar and the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray were already restless, noting that Nitish did not stand when BJP workers sang ‘Vande Mataram’ at a joint NDA rally in Bihar.

What happened next

Votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election were counted on 23 May 2019. The BJP won 303 of the 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term as Prime Minister on 30 May 2019.

See also: more election news

Originally published on 17 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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