‘Banchte chai, BJP tai’: PM Modi unveils new slogan for Bengal battle

“The people of Bengal need the real change – a government of good governance where the poor can live with dignity. This genuine change can be brought only by the BJP. So, we must reach every doorstep with this message, and the slogan should be chanted in every corner of Bengal – Banchte chai, BJP tai. This is Bengal’s slogan, and this is Bengal’s future,” Modi said amid huge applause from the audience while addressing the Parivartan Sankalpa Sabha rally on Dum Dum Central Jail ground on Friday evening.

Multiple BJP sources said the Prime Minister himself – the party’s top leader – had announced the slogan for Bengal to boost the morale of the party’s rank and file ahead of the next year’s elections.

Modi on Friday used a few other Bengali slogans also – TMC jabey, BJP asbey (TMC will go, BJP will come) and TMC ke sarao, Bangla ke banchao (Oust TMC,save Bengal).

During his nearly 40-minute speech, Modi used the slogan, Banchte chai, BJP tai, at least twice, urging BJP workers to rally around it even though the Assembly polls were seven months away.

Modi uttered more Bengali words compared to earlier rallies and claimed that the BJP would protect the Bengali culture. A source said the move was apparently to counter Trinamool’s “Bengali-phobia” narrative against the BJP.

In earlier elections, the BJP had brought out multiple slogans. During the 2021 Assembly polls, the party pushed “Banglar darkar, double engine sarkar (Bengal needs a double-engine government)” to argue that Bengal could develop properly only if both Delhi and the state had the same ruling party.

After the violence post-the declaration of the 2021 Assembly election results, the BJP’s main slogan was “Ar noi annay (No more injustice)”.

Political scientists said Modi’s new slogan was important not only as a campaign line but also as a morale booster for BJP workers.

“The Prime Minister has changed his campaign style. He brought in a Bengali slogan mainly to motivate party workers. He also attempted to stitch politics and development together, something he could not effectively do in earlier elections,” said political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty.

A marked difference from the 2021 campaign was Modi’s avoidance of direct attacks on Mamata or her nephew Abhishek. In 2021, his “Didi-o-Didi” campaign line was a striking feature, but this time, he stayed away from personal barbs and instead focused on micro-issues of the state.

However, this restraint has often allowed the CPM and Congress to push the “TMC-BJP setting” narrative.

Apart from the slogan launch, Modi also strongly attacked the Mamata Banerjee government on governance and infiltration.

“The central government has given Bengal three times more than what it used to get during the UPA regime. But most of that money was looted and distributed among Trinamool cadres, instead of being used for development,” the Prime Minister said, adding that real progress could only come if the BJP cameto power.

He accused Trinamool of facilitating infiltration, claiming infiltrators were grabbing land and altering the country’s demography – a point he linked to his recently launched Demography Mission.

“If we want to complete our mission of freeing Bengal from infiltrators, Trinamool must be ousted,” Modi said.

“This was once the situation (like Bengal) in neighbouring states like Assam and Tripura. But after the BJP came to power, poor people there began to benefit from welfare schemes. Bengal also needs a BJP government. It is certain: TMC will go, and BJP will come to power,” he added.

In an earlier rally in Durgapur, Modi had chanted slogans like “Joy Maa Kali” and “Joy Maa Durga,” which sparked a political controversy as the Opposition claimed that the Prime Minister had been trying to woo Bengalis by invoking the names of their popular deities.

On Friday, Modi named at least half a dozen local popular deities, including the goddess Tara of Tarapith.