‘Trinamoolification’ U-turn: Bengal BJP faces internal backlash over inducting former TMC MPs

Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the West Bengal Assembly election in 2026, winning 207 of the 293 seats, West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya made a bold political claim. “Our doors are closed for Trinamool. There will be no ‘Trinamoolification’ of the BJP,” Mr. Bhattacharya had said. The 62-year-old leader, who had been a foot soldier of the party when its vote share was in single digits in West Bengal, was among the first to use the phrase ‘Trinamoolification of the BJP’.

He did not know then that on the afternoon of July 9, he would be handing out lotus-insignia party flags to three former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs at the BJP office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area. The three MPs were Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev, and Prakash Chik Baraik. They had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Trinamool Congress and had resigned after the party suffered an electoral setback in the Assembly poll. When in the Trinamool, they had publicly criticised the BJP.

Within hours of Mr. Bhattacharya welcoming the Trinamool leaders into the BJP fold, the party announced that the former Trinamool MPs were to be renominated to the Upper House with the support of newly elected BJP legislators. Mr. Bhattacharya tried to defend opening doors for the Trinamool leaders by saying that the decision was in national interest. “Syama Prasad Mookerjee has taught us that the party is bigger than an individual, and the nation is bigger than the party,” he said, trying hard to say that inducting the three leaders into the party was an “exception”.

The Bengal BJP president who had spoken about the party’s doors being closed for Trinamool members is now saying that those in the Trinamool who could not raise their voices in the party are now knocking on BJP doors and the party may consider opening its doors at an opportune moment.

Feeling the heat of the move, Mr. Bhattacharya admits that the anger among the BJP rank and file was so much that supporters who were singing his praises during the election are putting a garland of shoes around his photograph. “Usually the garland is made of old shoes, but I saw that the shoes were all new,” the BJP leader quipped. Several BJP leaders, such as State Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta, said they found it difficult to participate in the flag-handing-over event.

To many, the Trinamoolification of the BJP started even before the party won the 2026 Assembly poll. Former West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, now a prominent Minister in the West Bengal government, took a swipe at Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari by saying that it was not new for Trinamool leaders to join the BJP. “Where is it written in the BJP that people from other parties cannot join. Our Chief Minister is also a former Trinamool (leader),” Mr. Ghosh said.

Mr. Ghosh’s reference to Mr. Adhikari points to the unease in BJP’s rank and file. Mr. Adhikari, once a key Trinamool leader and Minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government, defected to the BJP in December 2020. Mr. Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee twice at Nandigram in 2021 and Bhabanipur in 2026, was chosen to lead the BJP government in West Bengal, five years after joining the party.

The ongoing defections from the Trinamool Congress have added to the debate. After the defeat in the West Bengal Assembly poll in 2026, the Trinamool Congress has been torn apart by rebellion and desertions. The majority of Lok Sabha MPs and party MLAs decided to part ways with party chairperson Mamata Banerjee. Despite being beneficiaries of the Trinamool Congress’s politics, these MPs and MLAs have blamed the party chairperson for favouring her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and allowing corruption and misrule to persist. Of the 28 Lok Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress, 20 have merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and have become a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

This development has placed Bengal BJP in a delicate position. While the party’s leadership sees the inductees as strengthening the organisation, many grassroots workers view it as a betrayal of the party’s earlier stance against Trinamool. The challenge for Mr. Bhattacharya and the state leadership lies in balancing the need for political expansion with the sentiment of its traditional cadre. The coming months will reveal whether the “exception” becomes a pattern or remains an isolated episode in West Bengal’s evolving political landscape.