West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026 | Candidates chant kirtans, roll rotis, shave beards as poll trail turns theatre of outreach

Kolkata: On the campaign trail in West Bengal these days, the distance between a candidate and a voter can be measured not merely in speeches or slogans but sometimes in rotis rolled, beards shaved and hymns sung.

From kitchens in Hooghly to roadside barber stalls in Birbhum and kirtan gatherings in Jhargram, aspirants cutting across party lines are stepping off the conventional rally stage and walking straight into the everyday lives of people.

In Hooghly’s Pursurah, TMC nominee Partha Hazari was recently seen inside a voter’s kitchen, rolling out rotis on a traditional clay oven after learning that the household had run out of cooking gas.

As party workers raised slogans outside, Hazari wielded the rolling pin with surprising ease before turning the impromptu culinary act into a political message.

“I have made rotis before, so I know a bit of the craft. Many families are struggling because gas cylinders are not available. I only tried to lend a helping hand,” he said with a smile.

The imagery, a candidate kneading dough while asking for votes, quickly travelled across social media, adding another chapter to Bengal’s colourful election folklore.

If Hazari’s outreach came from the warmth of a kitchen hearth, a BJP candidate in Birbhum chose the edge of a barber’s blade.

In Dubrajpur, sitting MLA Anup Saha paused during his campaign after spotting a roadside barber at work. Moments later, the saffron candidate was seated beside the stall, razor in hand, shaving a man’s beard -- a gesture meant to underline his claim of remaining “one among the people”.

Saha had wrested Dubrajpur from the ruling party in the 2021 elections, one of the few seats where the BJP managed to plant its flag in TMC leader Anubrata Mondal’s political backyard.

This time, the razor-sharp optics seemed aimed at reminding voters that, despite being an MLA, he still keeps his feet firmly on the ground.

Further south, in the forested belt of Jhargram, the BJP’s Gopiballavpur candidate Rajesh Mahato opted for another register of public connect: faith.

Launching his campaign with a Hari naam sankirtan in the Patashimul region, Mahato joined villagers in devotional chants and even played with gulal during the gathering before moving on to door-to-door canvassing.

In the hyper-competitive electoral theatre of Bengal, such gestures — whether culinary, cultural or spiritual — are becoming part of a larger choreography where symbolism often carries as much weight as slogans.

Even the Left, once the most ideologically austere force in the state’s politics, appears to be adapting to this new grammar of public engagement.

In Panihati, CPI(M)’s young candidate Kaltan Dasgupta began his campaign with prayers at the Mahotsavtala ghat temple dedicated to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a sight that would have been almost unthinkable during the Left Front’s three-decade rule when communists projected a rigidly secular political identity.

Veterans recall earlier flashes of similar contradictions.

The late Subhas Chakraborty, who had been a senior CPI(M) leader and minister, once stirred debate within party ranks by offering prayers at the Tarapith temple, while the Hajj pilgrimage of ex-minister Rezzak Mollah had also raised ideological eyebrows.

Chakraborty himself had once captured the paradox in a line that has since become part of Bengal’s political folklore: “First Mohammad, then Marx.” Political observers say the new generation of leaders across parties is less bound by ideological rigidity and more focused on optics and accessibility.

“Today, elections are fought as much through symbolism as through speeches. Candidates want to be seen sharing everyday spaces — kitchens, temples, barber shops — because that creates a sense of intimacy with voters,” a Kolkata-based political analyst said.

Yet, beneath the political sparring lies a shared recognition that the modern Bengal voter expects visibility, relatability and spectacle from those seeking power.

With polling scheduled in two phases on April 23 and April 29, and counting on May 4, the coming weeks could see even more inventive acts of public outreach.

After all, in Bengal’s intensely theatrical politics, the campaign trail has never merely been about speeches. Sometimes, it is about who rolls the better roti, wields the sharper razor, or sings the loudest hymn.