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Maach & mutton for Mission Bengal. What BJP-TMC are cooking in new poll battleground

In a food-obsessed state, BJP and TMC are foregrounding fish, diverting public attention from stalled projects, unemployment, and relentless syndicate corruption.

New Delhi: It’s never just a fish in Bengal. This week, that truism has leapt from cultural cliche to political headlines, turning fish into the most unlikely, yet potent, symbol in the run-up to the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections. From BJP leaders conspicuously brandishing katla fish to Trinamool Congress sharpening its attacks on “outsider” BJP, the Bengali plate has become a full-blown electoral battleground.

Call it optics, signalling, or survival politics — the BJP’s sudden embrace of fish ahead of the polls this month is not accidental. The Trinamool’s sustained campaign to paint the party as culturally alien to Bengal served as bait. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly warned that a BJP regime could impose dietary restrictions on the maach-bhaater Bangali, claims the BJP has been scrambling to counter. The party has even, bizarrely, reassured the voters that their CM face will be non-vegetarian.

Political messaging has bled seamlessly into internet culture. The stereotype of the fish-loving Bengali has now become a contested political site and both the BJP and TMC know it. And the voters do too.

In a food-obsessed state, parties are playing at where it matters, diverting public attention from stalled projects, unemployment, and relentless syndicate corruption. This BJP vs TMC’s conspicuous on-ground food outreach battle makes Bengal’s fish wars ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.

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