Six months after Suvendu Adhikari became West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister, the “double-engine” promise of delivering Narendra Modi’s Viksit Bharat model looks like little more than political theatre in a state that long resisted the party.
Adhikari has announced packages for Jhargram, the Sundarbans (Rs 1,200 crore), housing under PMAY and a budget heavy on welfare rhetoric. Yet India Today’s assessment of the first 150 days finds jobs still promises, investment largely at the commitment stage, and welfare delivery gaps intact. The same report notes the “Trinamoolisation” of the BJP, with former TMC faces and local cadre behaviour echoing the old political culture voters rejected. Development announcements function as signalling; measurable transformation has not arrived.
What has arrived is aggressive Hindutva as governance. Adhikari has pledged a Uniform Civil Code within six months, floated laws against “love jihad” and “land jihad,” and declared that only Sanatanis may handle Durga idols. The Hindu notes that even RSS figures and old-school BJP leaders have been taken aback by bookstall demolitions and other excesses. Minority communities report rising attacks; The Wire describes a “rampage” against the state’s Muslim population through rhetoric, raids and selective enforcement. A deadly Durga Puja stampede in Kolkata, with the CM’s nephew listed as chief patron of the pandal, has raised questions of accountability that the government has not convincingly answered.
Press freedom has deteriorated. Reporters Without Borders documents bans on civil servants speaking to media, FIRs against journalists, vandalism of Anandabazar Patrika and cyberbullying. Internal BJP cracks are already visible, with colleagues complaining that Adhikari still behaves like Leader of the Opposition rather than chief minister.
Bengal was sold as the ultimate double-engine test: a resistant state remade by Modi’s model. Instead, the first six months show polarisation, institutional pressure and continuity of old vices under a saffron banner. If this is Viksit Bharat in practice, the model is less about development than about cultural majoritarianism and centralised control. The resistance that once defined Bengal has not vanished; it has simply been met with a different form of political signalling.
