New Delhi: Despite West Bengal being home to one of the largest Muslim populations in India (nearly 27 per cent), the BJP appears to have conspicuously sidelined its Muslim leaders, keeping them away from the party’s campaign in the poll-bound state so far. Party insiders whisper about a “deliberate sidelining”, with Muslim leaders pushed to the margins as the campaign narrative sharpens along polarising lines. Assembly elections in the state will be held on April 23 and April 29.
Speaking to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, a senior minority leader said, “We are hardly asked for campaigning these days. Bengal has a huge Muslim population; still, there has so far been no attempt by the party to use us.”
Another minority leader was blunter: “The BJP is playing a polarising card in Bengal. The main focus of the party is against the Muslim illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh. It could be difficult for the BJP to deploy and justify our presence. This is majoritarian politics.”
India Hate Lab, a Washington-based think tank, in its latest report documented “1,318 hate speech events targeting religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, in 2025 across 21 states, one Union territory and the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi”. The report states, “On average, four hate speech events occurred per day and this marks a 13 per cent increase from 2024 and a 97 per cent increase from 2023…” West Bengal, according to the report, recorded “27 hate speech events” in 2025.
A BJP minority leader in Bengal admitted that the party has “no inclination to focus on any major minority outreach programmes, mainly because it feels that Muslims and Christians in Bengal won’t vote for the saffron party”. He was recently told: “Don’t waste much time on trying to woo the minorities. They won’t vote for us.”
As a Delhi-based BJP minority leader put it: “Muslims don’t connect with the BJP, because the BJP doesn’t connect with the Muslims.” His frustration then captured the broader sentiment, “Na hum idhar ke rahe na udhar ke (now we neither belong to this side nor the other side).”
Prominent Muslim faces of the party at the national level remain conspicuously absent from Bengal, even as local leadership intensifies rhetoric targeting the community. Leader of the Opposition in Bengal Suvendu Adhikari has repeatedly courted controversy with remarks seen as openly hostile. Last year he threatened to “throw Muslim MLAs out of the Bengal Assembly if the BJP formed government”.
“The way Israel taught a lesson in Gaza, the government of the country, which is run in the interest of 100-crore Hindus, should also teach (a lesson to Bangladesh),” Adhikari was again quoted saying.
The political messaging has also been equally symbolic. The BJP government recently devoted over 10 hours to a debate on Vande Mataram in Parliament, widely interpreted as an attempt to consolidate majoritarian sentiment in the state.
On Saturday, Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, while participating in Eid-ul-Fitr prayers in Kolkata, targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged “hypocrisy”. She said: “When you go abroad, you shake hands with leaders and speak of friendship…But when you return to India, suddenly the Hindu-Muslim narrative begins and people are called infiltrators.”
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