Haryana to Bengal: BJP safe
With the BJP’s landslide victory in West Bengal, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, the party has won the chief minister’s post in nine states for the first time since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014.
The journey began with Haryana and Maharashtra in 2014, followed by Assam (2016), Arunachal Pradesh (2016), Manipur (2017), Tripura (2018), Odisha (2024), Bihar (2026) and now West Bengal.
In Haryana, for the first time, the party formed the government on its own and made Manohar Lal Khattar the Chief Minister.
In Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis became the first BJP Chief Minister of the state, after the BJP emerged as the largest party in the assembly elections and formed the government with partners in the Mahayuti alliance.
The BJP expanded its reach in the Northeast by winning Assam in 2016, where Sarbananda Sonowal became the party’s first chief minister in the state.
Since then, the BJP has retained power in Assam and won two more consecutive assembly elections, including the one held in April.
In the same year, 2016, the BJP formed its first full-fledged government in Arunachal Pradesh after a major political restructuring in the state.
In July 2016, Congress leader Pema Khandu took over as Chief Minister amid a prolonged political crisis, but in September, she and most of the Congress MLAs joined BJP ally People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA).
A few months later, in December 2016, Khandu joined the BJP along with 33 MLAs, giving the party a clear majority and forming its first stable government in the state.
The BJP briefly formed the government in Arunachal Pradesh in 2003 under the leadership of former Chief Minister Gegong Apang. Apang, who had then left the Congress and joined the BJP, led the government for only 44 days before returning to the Congress.
In 2017, the BJP formed a post-poll alliance with the National People’s Party (NPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and other regional parties in Manipur and made N Biren Singh the chief minister, the party’s first government in the border state.
In 2018, the BJP ended the Left Front’s decades-long rule in Tripura and formed its first government under the leadership of Biplab Kumar Deb.
The party achieved another success in eastern India in 2024 by defeating the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, where Mohan Charan Majhi was sworn in as the first BJP chief minister in the state, ending Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year uninterrupted tenure.
In Bihar, where the BJP has long been a part of Nitish Kumar-led coalition governments, the party did not have a chief minister until 2026.
Kumar, who served as chief minister for several terms with brief interruptions for more than two decades, stepped down earlier this year and moved to the Rajya Sabha.
After his departure, BJP appointed Samrat Chaudhary as the first Chief Minister of the state from the party.
With its victory in West Bengal in the latest elections, the BJP has now formed the government in a state that was long considered politically elusive for the party. It won 207 out of 294 assembly seats.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said the party’s political expansion under Modi’s leadership reflects its governance model and growing acceptance across the country.
He said, “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the BJP and the NDA have continuously expanded their political footprint across India on the basis of governance, performance and delivery. In states that never had a BJP government or a BJP chief minister before, BJP governments were elected after Modi became the Prime Minister.”
“Prime Minister Modi has now become synonymous with the pro-incumbency wave. In the last few elections, BJP-NDA governments have returned to power in states like Assam and Puducherry, while governments in many opposition-ruled states have faced an anti-incumbency wave,” he said.
He described the rise of the BJP in eastern India as “historic” and correcting the imbalance.
“This will help correct the historical imbalance and neglect that eastern India faced under Congress rule and ensure balanced growth and infrastructure development,” he said.
Poonawalla also attacked the Congress and alleged that its political footprint was shrinking while that of the BJP-NDA continued to expand.
He said, “Today there are about 21-22 BJP-NDA governments across the country. The governance footprint of the alliance extends to about 78 per cent of India’s population and about 72 per cent of its landmass.”
“Under Modi’s leadership, the BJP has become the central pole of Indian politics, while the Congress is rapidly losing political space. Even its allies in the Indian camp are unhappy as the Congress is competing with them for the same vote bank,” he alleged.
BJP national spokesperson Tuhin A Sinha described the party’s expansion as a “golden phase” in the party’s political journey.
“This has been a golden phase in the BJP’s journey as we have entered geographies that were once considered impenetrable or extremely difficult for the party,” he said.
Sinha attributed the BJP’s rise to its governance decisions and fulfillment of election promises.
He said, “Whether it is the removal of Article 370, implementation of CAA or construction of Ram Temple, the BJP has shown that it keeps its promises. That is why states which were once untouched by the BJP’s influence are now embracing the party.”
He claimed that BJP now has a strong presence in most parts of the country.
“Except the two southern states – Tamil Nadu and Kerala – the BJP has established a strong presence across the country, and these states are also part of the party’s future expansion plans,” Sinha said.
