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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Mamata Banerjee vs the mighty Establishment. That’s what Bengal election is really about

A relentless, almost monolithic narrative plays out in the mainstream media: Bengal as 'lawless,' Bengal as 'violent,' Bengal as 'unstable.' Every incident is amplified.

There are elections. And there is an orchestrated assault.

The 2026 Bengal Assembly elections don’t look like a conventional democratic contest, the usual rollicking face-off between political parties.

What is unfolding is far more stark, unsettling and even chilling, bearing grim implications for the future of democracy in India. In Bengal we’re seeing a systematic alignment of institutions all ranged against a single elected leader, and a single party.

It is Mamata Banerjee versus the Establishment. Mamata Banerjee versus the System. Mamata Banerjee versus the entire Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-headed Centre.

A three-time Chief Minister stands her ground—the only woman chief minister of a state—against the full weight of the Modi-led Centre.

From the bureaucracy, to central forces, to the Election Commission, to the office of the governor, even the National Investigative Agency: A wide arc of entities is trained against Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal.

If there is one arena where the Narendra Modi-led BJP excels it is narrative building—the dark art of shaping perceptions so that the lines between truth and lies blur.

On 2 April, in Malda, public anger over exclusions from the electoral roll boiled over, and an agitated crowd gathered. Judicial officers were surrounded, and according to some reports “held hostage.” There are credible reports that the Malda protests were deliberately incited by agent provocateurs, aiming to spark a conflagration.

Instantly the narrative was set. The BJP and its ecosystem quickly blamed the Mamata Banerjee government and demanded immediate central intervention. Mainstream TV media looped visuals of unrest -reinforcing a familiar “Bengal is burning,” trope.

What the BJP’s myth-making chose to ignore –and what the Honourable Supreme Court too glossed over—was crucial.

Bengal’s law and order machinery is not in the hands of the state government now. It is entirely in the hands of the Election Commission.

Almost 500 officers including District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police have been transferred out of Bengal by the Election Commission. The top official brass were transferred at 4 am on 15 March, hours after elections were announced. The number of officials transferred in Bengal is 21 times the number transferred in other poll-bound states.

So how can the blame of “breakdown of law and order” then be laid at the door of the state government? The Election........

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