New Delhi:
Two political earthquakes are playing out simultaneously in the Opposition space – one in the east, where the Trinamool Congress is facing an “internal revolt,” and one at the national level, where the INDIA alliance appears to be unravelling in slow motion. For the BJP, both developments are being read as opportunity.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, speaking to NDTV’s Senior Executive Editor Aditya Raj Kaul as the INDIA bloc held a meeting in New Delhi, was unsparing in his assessment of the Opposition’s condition.
“The INDIA Alliance from Day One was characterised by internal contradictions,” he said, noting that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had publicly criticised Mamata Banerjee before the West Bengal elections – calling out her governance record – and also alienating the Left, the DMK and others through provocative statements.
The most striking political symbol of the Trinamool Congress’s erosion, Puri argued, is the resignation letter of Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, a two-term Trinamool MP who quit with three years remaining in his current term. Roy cited rampant corruption, political killings within the Trinamool, and atrocities against women as reasons for his exit.
“He’s not talking in the air,” Puri said, referencing the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case and the teacher recruitment scandal – two episodes that became national symbols of institutional failure in Bengal. In the latter, Puri noted, the BJP had given its ticket to the mother of a victim of the scandal.
The result of the West Bengal election – which delivered a historic mandate for the BJP after over 15 years of Trinamool rule and decades of CPM before that – has now reshaped the party’s political confidence. “After the victory in West Bengal, suddenly everybody seems to say we can do it in Punjab also,” Puri acknowledged, describing the mood within BJP circles.
Punjab is where Puri is now training his focus. The state goes to elections in the coming cycle, and the BJP is entering the contest from a structurally different position than before. As a junior partner in earlier alliances, the party never contested more than 23 of Punjab’s 117 assembly seats. “As a result of which we didn’t have any presence at all,” Puri admitted candidly. That is now changing. The minister said the party expects to contest at least half the seats this time, which would give it a “formidable presence” regardless of the final result.
The AAP government of Bhagwant Mann, Puri argued, stands indicted on three fronts: fiscal irresponsibility, worsening law and order, and a drug crisis that has deepened rather than resolved under AAP’s watch.
“There was supposed to be an ‘Asha Mukti’. It has become worse,” he said, alleging that instruments of the state – from revenue officials to ambulance services – have been implicated in the distribution of synthetic drugs. “On all fronts, I think the government stands indicted,” Puri said.
Six AAP parliamentarians have already crossed over to the BJP, and the minister predicted more defections before elections are called. He also flagged the local body election results as a leading indicator – the BJP’s vote share in Punjab’s municipal polls tripled from its previous levels, while the ruling AAP came in below 1,000 votes in certain contests.
As for the broader INDIA alliance, Puri predicted it would “stutter along,” with more constituent parties drifting toward new formulations.
“Today the Congress Party is not even being accepted as a junior partner by others,” he said. The Trinamool’s internal fractures, he argued, are inseparable from the alliance’s weakening: opposition voters disillusioned with the Trinamool now have nowhere obvious to go. “If you were disillusioned with the Trinamool and anti-BJP, where would you go? To the Congress? Does that inspire confidence?” he questioned.
The subtext of Puri’s political reading is clear: The BJP sees 2026-27 not just as an energy management test, but as a window to consolidate gains in states that seemed unreachable just two election cycles ago.
