BJP Secures First-Time CMs in 9 States Since Modi Became PM
New Delhi: With the BJP’s resounding victory in West Bengal, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government, the party has secured the chief ministerial post in nine states for the first time since Narendra Modi became the chief minister in 2014. The journey started with Haryana and Maharashtra in 2014, followed by Assam (2016), Arunachal Pradesh (2016). Manipur (2017), Tripura (2018), Odisha (2024), Bihar (2026) and now West Bengal.
In Haryana, the party formed a government on its own for the first time and appointed Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister.
In Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis became the state’s first BJP chief minister after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the assembly polls and formed the government with allies in the Mahayuti alliance.
The BJP expanded its presence in the Northeast by winning Assam in 2016, where Sarbananda Sonowal became the party’s first chief minister in the state.
Since then, the BJP has retained power in Assam and won two more consecutive assembly elections, including the one held in April.
The same year, 2016, the BJP formed its first full-fledged government in Arunachal Pradesh after major political realignment in the state.
In July 2016, Congress leader Pema Khandu took over as chief minister amid a protracted political crisis, but in September she and a majority of Congress MLAs joined the BJP’s ally Arunachal People’s Party (PPA).
A few months later, in December 2016, Khandu along with 33 MLAs joined the BJP, giving the party a clear majority and the first stable government in the state.
The BJP briefly headed the government headed by former chief minister Gegong Apang in Arunachal Pradesh in 2003. Apang, who left the Congress and joined the BJP at that time, headed the government for only 44 days before returning to the Congress.
In 2017, the BJP formed a post-election alliance with the National People’s Party (NPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and other regional parties in Manipur and appointed N Biren Singh as the chief minister; this was the party’s first government in the border state.
In 2018, the BJP ended the Left Front’s decades-long rule in Tripura and formed its first government under Biplab Kumar Deb.
The party made another breakthrough in eastern India by defeating the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha in 2024, where Mohan Charan Majhi was sworn in as the BJP’s first chief minister in the state, ending Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year uninterrupted presidency.
In Bihar, where the BJP has long been in coalition governments led by Nitish Kumar, there was no chief minister from the party until 2026.
Kumar, who served multiple terms as prime minister over two decades with brief interruptions, resigned earlier this year and moved to the Rajya Sabha.
Following his departure, the BJP appointed Samrat Choudhary as the state’s first chief minister from the party.
With its victory in West Bengal in the latest polls, the BJP has now formed a government in a state that has long been considered politically elusive for the party. It won 207 of the 294 seats in the parliament.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the party’s political expansion under Modi reflects its governance model and growing acceptance across the country.
“Under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, the BJP and NDA have continuously expanded their political footprint across India on the basis of governance, performance and service. States that had no previous BJP government or BJP prime minister elected BJP governments after Modi became the prime minister,” he said.
“Prime Minister Modi has now become synonymous with pro-incumbency. In the last few elections, while BJP-NDA governments in states like Assam and Puducherry have returned to power, governments in many opposition-ruled states have faced anti-incumbency,” he said.
He described the rise of the BJP in eastern India as “historic” and a development that corrects the imbalance.
“This will help redress the historical imbalance and neglect that Eastern India faced under Congress rule and ensure balanced development and infrastructure growth,” he said.
Poonawalla also attacked the Congress, alleging that while the BJP-NDA continues to expand, its political footprint is shrinking.
“Today, the BJP-NDA has around 21-22 governments across the country. The governance footprint of the alliance covers around 78 per cent of India’s population and around 72 per cent of its territory,” he said.
“While the BJP, under Modi’s leadership, has become the central pole of Indian politics, the Congress is gradually losing political space. Even its allies in the INDIA bloc are unhappy because the Congress is competing with them for the same vote bank.”
BJP national spokesperson Tuhin A Sinha described the party’s expansion as a “golden phase” in the party’s political journey.
“This has been a golden phase in the journey of the BJP because we have entered geographical areas that were once considered impenetrable or extremely difficult for the party,” he said.
Sinha attributed the rise of the BJP to management decisions and fulfillment of poll promises.
“Whether it is the abrogation of Article 370, the implementation of the CAA or the construction of the Ram Mandir, the BJP has shown that it delivers on its promises. This is one of the reasons why states that were once immune to the influence of the BJP are now embracing the party,” he said.
He claimed that the BJP now has a strong presence in most parts of the country.
“Except for the two southern states (Tamil Nadu and Kerala), the BJP has established a strong presence across the country and these states are also part of the party’s future expansion plans,” Sinha said.
