New Delhi: Drawing from its Bihar campaign model, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing to launch an extensive “Prabasi” outreach programme in West Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, scheduled for mid-May to June next year. The party has drawn up a comprehensive list of leaders from across the country to reinforce its organisational network and intensify campaigning in strategically significant regions of the state.
Sources in the West Bengal BJP said senior leaders from multiple states will be deputed to work closely with the state unit, with a specific focus on strengthening grassroots mobilisation and improving boothlevel management. The outreach drive will primarily cover politically sensitive and electorally crucial zones such as Nabadwip, Kolkata, and the Howrah–Hooghly– Midnapore belt.
The Prabasi list includes senior party functionaries, sitting and former legislators, ex-ministers, organisational office-bearers and youth leaders drawn from Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Tripura. Each leader will be assigned specific districts, where they will oversee organisational expansion, election preparedness and voter engagement in coordination with local BJP units.
Party insiders said the initiative is part of a carefully calibrated strategy aimed at breaking the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) entrenched district-level dominance. After more than 15 years in power under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the TMC has built a formidable grassroots network, particularly among economically weaker sections, supported by a disciplined cadre structure. The BJP is now seeking to counter this advantage by significantly ramping up its ground-level presence and organisational penetration.
At the core of the strategy is an effort to energise the party organisation and widen outreach beyond its traditional support base. As part of this exercise, West Bengal has been divided into six political zones, each to be overseen by seasoned RSS and BJP leaders with substantial organisational or electoral experience in other states. The zoning is intended to sharpen focus on constituencies where the party underperformed in the 2021 Assembly elections, while consolidating gains in areas where it had performed relatively well.
The renewed organisational push follows Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah’s recent visit to West Bengal. During his visit, Shah chaired a series of key organisational and political meetings to review election preparedness and boost cadre morale ahead of what the party views as a highstakes contest. In a move aimed at improving coordination within the Sangh Parivar, the BJP has also brought in Sunil Ambekar, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and Pradeep Joshi, former Prant-in-charge of West Bengal and Odisha.
