How Bengali Language Politics And SIR Will Shape The 2026 West Bengal Assembly Election | OPINION

On Aug. 6, 2025, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, along with supporters take part in the 'Bhasha Andolan' rally in Jhargram.

Source : PTI

In the cauldron of West Bengal’s 2026 Assembly election, Mamata Banerjee wields Bengali pride like a battle-axe, slicing through the Bharatiya Janata Party’s faltering campaign. With her fiery rhetoric of “Bengali Pride,” she’s not just defending a region — she’s weaponising its soul. Bengali sub-nationalism, fused with fears over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists, has become her fortress, casting the BJP as cultural interlopers bent on