Muslims Vs Machh: 2026 Bengal Battle Finds New Vocabulary With Faith Or Food Dilemma

In West Bengal, every election season turns into a creativity contest, with political parties vying to outdo one another in inventing new vocabularies and fresh political theatrics. In earlier decades, it was ‘class’, ‘land’ and ‘cadre’. In 2011, it was ‘change’. In 2021, it was ‘insider vs outsider’. And for 2026, the emerging grammar seems unexpectedly elemental—faith and food—precisely Muslims vs Machh (fish). Two campaign films, one from the BJP and one from the Trinamool Congress, have signalled how the months ahead may be framed.

The BJP’s recently released campaign video imagines a future, almost a dystopian Bengal, as the state is transformed by unchecked minority appeasement and demographic shift, leaning visually on comparisons with Pakistan. The framing suggests that cultural a