Indian politics remains fiercely competitive. When leaders have big ambitions and parties fail to accommodate them, they move on.
The BJP has, over the past decade, become remarkably adept at spotting that moment and has been open at welcoming those with ambition and drive.
As is widely believed, the BJP picked up Suvendu Adhikari as leader of the legislative party, thus paving the way for him to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Not long ago, he was Mamata Banerjee's most trusted aide and a central figure in the Nandigram agitation that helped forge her political identity. He crossed the floor to the BJP in 2020, defeated Mamata twice in her pocket borough, earning the sobriquet 'giant killer', and rightfully becoming a claimant to the top post.
He will lead the government of a state that once seemed firmly beyond the saffron party's reach.
But he is not alone in this company. Himanta Biswa Sarma, widely expected to be formally confirmed as Assam's Chief Minister imminently, was a Congress leader before he left, frustrated (by his own account) that the party had no room for his ambitions.
Under his strategic command, the BJP has won Assam three times and has used the state as a launchpad for a strong presence across the North-east. The Congress's loss has been the BJP's most durable regional gain.
Then there is Samrat Choudhary, who became Bihar's Chief Minister last month, and the first from the BJP to hold that place.
He comes from the Rashtriya Janata Dal, ideologically one of the BJP's oldest rivals. His elevation shows that the BJP's recruitment carries no ideological condition. What matters is reach, local credibility, and the ability to deliver.
Together these three chief ministers are the BJP’s key war horses in the East.
The pattern is deliberate and has its evident rewards. In each case, the BJP has brought in a leader who carries an established voter base, a ground network, and regional standing which often take years to build.
It is, in effect, a quicker route to dominance in states where the party had little natural foothold. As political wisdom goes, leaders with ambition are also the ones with maximum drive. And when one is new, he has a deeper urge to prove himself, too.
The returns have been significant. West Bengal, Assam, and Bihar were often thought to be beyond the BJP's traditional profile, given the regional character of these three states, but the party after years of aggressive and consistent campaign and engagement checkmated the regional satraps.
There are many leaders who started in different parties but, after crossing over, have been rewarded with cabinet berths. This, however, often causes heartburn among the party’s traditional cadre.
The approach has not been without embarrassment. The recent episode involved Jagdeep Dhankhar, who came to the BJP from the Janata Parivar and was elevated to the vice presidency.
Relations between him and the party leadership frayed, which led to his resignation. The BJP filled the post with an old party hand.
It is also worth noting that the Congress is no stranger to this game. Its Chief Minister in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, travelled through the Janata Dal and its faction before joining the Congress.
In Telangana, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy was once in the BJP before switching sides. So, the Congress which currently has three CMs—and a fourth picked up in Kerala—has half of its number from other parties, who helped it win polls.
If political parties were big corporates, then this movement of talent between the rival companies would bring both sides growth, as the core principle is ambition.
However, in politics, it being the only motivating factor is often disruptive and causes much consternation in core supporters who get confused over the ideological switches. So, it was not without reason that when Raghav Chadha—the youth face of AAP—joined the BJP, he lost nearly three million followers since then.
The broader point is plain: the movement of ambitious leaders across party lines is a well-worn feature of Indian democracy, and no single party holds a monopoly on it.
The BJP has pursued this model as a calculated strategy for expansion, and has been experimenting with empowering younger leadership within the party. Once delimitation increases the overall number of seats in state assemblies and the Lok Sabha by 50 per cent as proposed by the government, given the dominance of BJP, the move may still attract talented and ambitious leaders from other parties.
This should force the Opposition parties to look within their parties in terms of improving communication, trusting credible leaders, and putting in force-responsive structures. As 2026 has proven, the challenge is substantial.