The upcoming West Bengal Assembly election, expected to be held in April or May, is shaping up to be a bipolar fight between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Both parties are actively pushing competing narratives through Facebook advertisements — though the latter is doing it more aggressively. According to data from Meta’s Ad Library, between January 1 and February 19, the TMC’s official Facebook page had 20 active ads. In comparison, the BJP West Bengal page had 76.
While the BJP ad campaign heavily featured dramatised videos of voters addressing their grievances against the state government, the TMC focused on its own leaders to push its narrative.
But here’s where things get interesting.
Nephew versus aunt
The ads featuring the TMC’s general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, were boosted — or paid to give it a bigger reach — far more frequently than those featuring his aunt and party supremo, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Of the 20 active ads, at least 14 prominently featured Abhishek Banerjee. According to estimates from the Meta Ads Library, the party spent between 1.7 lakh and Rs 2.2 lakh on the ads. And Abhishek’s ads alone cost TMC Rs 0.9–1.2 lakh. Notably, the BJP’s estimated spending during the same period touched a staggering Rs 31–37 lakh.
These clips included portions of Abhishek’s speeches during the Lok Sabha Budget Session, along with visuals of his interactions with journalists outside Parliament. They also featured Abhishek’s remarks on communal disturbances in BJP-ruled states, atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers, farmers’ suicides, and the state of the economy.
In contrast, only two clips featuring Mamata Banerjee were boosted by the TMC’s official Facebook page. One was from her press conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat, following the presentation of the 2026 State Budget. The other showed a group of women warning couples of physical harm, followed by a clip of Mamata Banerjee’s speech assuring young couples of their safety against such mobs.
What does this mean?
According to TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar, the difference in content reflects the distinct roles held by the two leaders. “Unlike Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee does not hold any position in the state government. His speeches, therefore, reflect the party’s political stance. When Abhishek speaks in Parliament, it represents our grievances against the BJP-led central government,” Majumdar said.
But Abhishek is also widely regarded as the party’s second-in-command and is often referred to by TMC cadres as their Senapati or commander. And Mamata Banerjee has, for years, been seen as eyeing a larger role in national politics, a fact that cannot be ignored.
Do these ads then signal an earlier-than-anticipated political succession within the TMC? Or does a faction inside the party want to project Abhishek as the future key administrator of the state?
According to Majumdar, “The party will decide when the time comes. Mamata Banerjee built this party from scratch. We are fortunate to have a mix of senior and junior leaders, and if a leadership change is ever required, it will be a collective decision taken by the party.”
But some friction within the party is undeniable. Following the TMC’s landslide victory in the 2021 Assembly polls, posters featuring Abhishek and the message “A new TMC is coming in six months” surfaced across Kolkata.
In March last year, parts of South Kolkata were filled with flags reading Adhinayak Abhishek or Captain Abhishek. Soon after, the streets saw a counter-visual surge of posters featuring Mamata Banerjee’s portrait with the slogan “Sarvadhinayika jaya he,” reinforcing perceptions of an emerging divide within the party.
Keeping Abhishek relevant
Some political analysts viewed the campaign as an effort to keep Abhishek Banerjee relevant in state politics. Others said it could be a part of an image-building process.
“Abhishek’s popularity is largely within the younger generation of the party. But TMC cadres and supporters — particularly those above 40 or 50 — still see Mamata Banerjee as their only leader. She is the figure holding the party together,” said veteran journalist and political analyst Prasun Acharya.
He further noted that, as chief minister and party supremo, Mamata Banerjee did not require aggressive social media promotion. “Content related to her enjoys organic reach — something Abhishek Banerjee does not yet command. There is only one Mamata Banerjee in India, much like Lalu Prasad Yadav,” he said.
Debarati Das, assistant professor of political science at the University of Calcutta, said that I-PAC may have shaped Abhishek Banerjee’s public persona and TMC’s digital media campaign. “Even before the 2021 elections, Abhishek and I-PAC had been working closely. Since the firm now leads much of the Trinamool Congress’s digital operations, it is expected that their primary focus would be on Abhishek,” Das said.
Another political commentator, Snehasish Chakraborty, echoed Das’s assessment, viewing the digital push as part of a broader roadmap to position Abhishek as an alternative to Mamata, given her focus on national politics.
He said, “If one closely tracks Abhishek Banerjee’s political trajectory — his efforts to refine his public image, oratory, and leadership skills, and his growing appeal among a section of the youth — it becomes evident that the party leadership wants him to emerge as the next major political figure in the state.”
On whether this indicates an attempt by the party leadership to strengthen Abhishek’s presence in state politics while enabling Mamata Banerjee to pursue national ambitions, Acharya said legacy-building is a natural political process.
“Everyone wants to leave behind a legacy. When a party has dismantled a 34-year Left Front regime in the state, it is only natural that its supremo would want to pass on that legacy to those seen as its inheritors,” he said. Chakraborty added that it is also inevitable that Abhishek would take charge of the TMC in Mamata’s absence, and in that light, a social media push is unsurprising.
