Saffron surge in east India: From BJP’s ‘homecoming’ in Bengal to decisive mandate in Assam

The numbers coming in from West Bengal's counting centres tells a story that will be discussed for years. The BJP has decimated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year-old rule. Simultaneously, from Guwahati, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP is set to cross the majority mark with elan, while the Congress was struggling to maintain its last poll’s tally. The BJP has won a historic third consecutive term in power.

Together, these two verdicts, coming a month after the BJP installed its own chief minister in Bihar, complete a political transformation of India's eastern geography that would have seemed implausible some years ago.

The scale of the BJP's Bengal win is the biggest headline of the day, apart from the upset in Tamil Nadu, where actor-politician Vijay’s TVK is close to forming the government. In Bengal, the BJP has managed to ride high on Hindutva consolidation, coupled with anti-incumbency, with a likely push from the SIR exercise. Law and order concerns, particularly around women's safety and political violence, were also seen as key election issues.

The election recorded a historic voter turnout of nearly 93 per cent, the highest ever in the state, surpassing even 2011, the year Mamata swept out the Left after 34 years. The parallel was not lost on anyone: in 2011, it was the TMC riding a wave of anti-incumbency against an entrenched regime. In 2026, the wheel had turned.

A win in West Bengal marks the BJP's first-ever government in the state, a major political breakthrough in east India that ends the long-standing dominance of the TMC and significantly boosts the BJP's national momentum. The BJP's state leadership was spearheaded by Suvendu Adhikari, who positioned himself as the face of resistance against the incumbent regime throughout the campaign.

With Home Minister Amit Shah stationed in Kolkata, personally managing the party’s strategy, the victory has come as a big boost for the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the face of the campaign.

The BJP's victory is also ideologically resonant. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a Bengali intellectual, was the founding father of Jana Sangh, which later transformed into BJP. So, winning Bengal completes a homecoming of sorts, seven decades in the making.

In Guwahati, Himanta Biswa Sarma's victory was never really in doubt after a few hours of counting. The BJP was leading in 98 seats, Congress in just 26. This represents not just a majority but a rout.

Sarma had focused on infiltration issues during his campaign, while Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi highlighted anti-incumbency and alleged corruption against the incumbent.

Assam recorded a voter turnout of nearly 85 per cent, the highest in its history — but the surge went overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP, not against it. The BJP’s third term is without precedent in Assam's modern political history and cements its position as the dominant political force across the entire northeast.

The eastern story actually began a few weeks ago in Patna, when an era quietly ended. Nitish Kumar resigned as chief minister after being elected to the Rajya Sabha and was succeeded by his deputy, Samrat Chaudhary, who became the first BJP CM in Bihar's history. This certainly had resonance across the neighbouring state, Bengal.

These results also shatter another notion. For the longest time, the BJP was seen as a party of the Hindi heartland and the west. The east — Bengal with its intellectual left-liberal tradition, Bihar with its caste coalitions, the northeast with its ethnic complexity — was a different terrain with different rules.

These polls tested the strength of national parties against regional parties and ruling state governments across east, south and northeast India. The verdict from the east is unambiguous: the regional walls have fallen.

The immediate question for Bengal is who becomes the chief minister. The BJP projected no projected CM face against Mamata, a calculated gamble. That question will now be answered in the coming days, with Suvendu Adhikari the most prominent name in the mix.

In Assam, Sarma's second term begins with an even stronger mandate.

And for Indian politics as a whole, the east, long the last frontier of genuine political pluralism, has been drawn into the national tide.