With elections inching closer in West Bengal, the BJP has quietly begun rolling out a campaign aimed at women voters, particularly in Hindu households, under what insiders are now calling “Operation Sindoor”.
The campaign, which has not yet been kick-started corporately outside of large rallies, consists of discrete and precise communications. Local BJP workers—especially women from the Mahila Morcha—have been going door-to-door through key districts, like Hooghly and Nadia, delivering small containers of sindoor to housewives and elderly women, while also discussing household issues like the inflation crisis, safety, and “respect.”
“We are not doing rallies,” remarked a party worker from Chandannagar, who chose to remain anonymous. “We just knock, talk to women, and listen. Many of these women are angry about prices, and they feel excluded from the political sphere.”
While the BJP lost major ground to the TMC in the 2021 assembly elections, the party still believes there’s room to regain influence, especially among female voters who may be dissatisfied with everyday governance issues.
Trinamool, meanwhile, has dismissed the campaign. A local TMC councillor in Barrackpore called it “a soft communal push in the name of women’s empowerment” and accused the BJP of “symbolism over substance”.
Political observers say the campaign’s strength lies in its subtlety, not its slogans. “Unlike BJP’s usual headline-grabbing tactics, this feels like a quieter test run,” said a Kolkata-based political journalist. “But whether it connects or not depends on local sentiments—not on symbolism alone.”
On the ground, responses vary. In one semi-urban pocket near Krishnanagar, a 52-year-old homemaker said she welcomed any political party that made her feel heard. “Nobody usually asks us anything. If they are listening, that’s good,” she said. But in a nearby village, a younger woman scoffed. “They think giving sindoor will get votes? We want jobs, not rituals.”
For now, the BJP isn’t pushing this campaign to national headlines—but it’s clearly betting that symbolic outreach combined with local frustrations might chip away at the TMC’s dominance.
