2026 polls fight for Bengali Hindus, nationalist Muslims to retain identity: Samik
Times of India | 9 July 2025
Kolkata: Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said on Tuesday that the 2026 assembly elections will be a fight for Bengali Hindus and nationalist, educated sections of the Muslim community to retain their identity.
"This election is a fight to retain the existence of Bengali Hindus and nationalist, logical Muslims in the state. The forces of election in Bengal will not be hijacked by political parties this time," Bhattacharya said.
The comments come days after the Bengal BJP chief said his party was not against Muslims even though the minority community might be critical of BJP, in an apparent bid to dent the minority support base of Trinamool Congress. "We are appealing to fence-sitters and critics of BJP. When they set the Indira Gandhi Cultural Center in Bangladesh on fire, Abul Bashar's books burnt along with poems of Joy Goswami," Bhattacharya had said in his first public address after being elected BJP president.
On Tuesday, he raised concerns about what he called "the rise of fundamentalist and fascist forces believing in Islam". He said Trinamool's policies have given rise to a situation in which Muslims were being attacked by Muslims.
"We are fighting against the lack of education and poverty among the Muslim community. We want Muslim youths to get into govt jobs based on merit, not through quota. They should not follow the ways of Afzal Guru. If Trinamool retains power in 2026, Bengal will remind us of what used to happen in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
"I respect pluralism in politics and BJP believes in multi-party democracy. If pluralism and multi-party democracy are to survive in Bengal, the fundamentalist and fascist forces believing in Islam have to go," Bhattacharya added.
The state BJP chief met Dilip Ghosh, the former BJP national vice president on Tuesday. After meeting Bhattacharya, Ghosh said, "I have been with BJP. It has grown because of the sweat and blood of party workers. More than 150 workers were killed. I cannot forget that. Neither can BJP workers forget that. We will uproot Trinamool in 2026.
"Bhattacharya, on his part, said party veterans will be frontrunners in the 2026 campaign. "There is no debate between veterans and newcomers. BJP advanced in Bengal only because veterans paved the way," he added.