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 minister's post for the first time in nine states since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014.
The journey began 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 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 footprint in the Northeast in 2016 by winning Assam, 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 a major political realignment in the state.
In July 2016, Congress leader Pema Khandu took over as chief minister amid a prolonged political crisis, but in September, he and a majority of Congress MLAs joined the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA), an ally of the BJP.
A few months later, in December 2016, Khandu, along with 33 MLAs, joined the BJP, giving the party a clear majority and its first stable government in the state.
The BJP had briefly headed a government in Arunachal Pradesh in 2003 under former chief minister Gegong Apang. Apang, who had left the Congress and joined the BJP at the time, headed the government for only 44 days before returning to the Congress.
In 2017, the BJP stitched together a post-poll alliance with the National People's Party (NPP), Naga People's Front (NPF), and other regional parties in Manipur and installed N Biren Singh as chief minister, marking 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 maiden government under Biplab Kumar Deb.
The party achieved another breakthrough in eastern India in 2024 by defeating the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, where Mohan Charan Majhi took oath as the BJP's first chief minister in the state, ending Naveen Patnaik's uninterrupted 24-year run.
In Bihar, where the BJP has long been part of coalition governments led by Nitish Kumar, it did not have a chief minister from the party until 2026.
Kumar, who served multiple terms as chief minister for more than two decades with brief interruptions, stepped down earlier this year and moved to the Rajya Sabha.
After 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 long considered politically elusive for the party. It won 207 of the 294 assembly seats.
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 delivery. States that never had a BJP government or BJP chief minister earlier have elected BJP governments after Modi became prime minister," he said.
"Prime Minister Modi has now become synonymous with pro-incumbency. In the last few elections, BJP-NDA governments in states like Assam and Puducherry have been voted back to power, while governments in several opposition-ruled states have faced anti-incumbency," he said.
He described the BJP's rise in eastern India as "historic" and a corrective to an imbalance.
"This will help correct the historical imbalance and neglect faced by eastern India under Congress rule and ensure balanced development and infrastructure growth," he said.
Poonawalla also attacked the Congress, alleging that its political footprint is shrinking while the BJP-NDA continue to expand.
"Today, the BJP-NDA has around 21-22 governments across the country. The alliance's governance footprint extends to nearly 78 per cent of India's population and around 72 per cent of its landmass," he said.
"The BJP under Modi's leadership has become the central pole of Indian politics, while Congress is increasingly losing political space. Even its allies in the INDIA bloc are unhappy because Congress is competing with them for the same vote bank," he alleged.
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 BJP's journey because we have entered geographical regions that were once considered impregnable or extremely difficult for the party," he said.
Sinha credited the BJP's rise to its governance decisions and fulfilment of poll promises.
"Whether it is the abrogation of Article 370, implementation of the CAA or the construction of the Ram Mandir, the BJP has demonstrated that it fulfils its promises. That is one of the reasons why states that were once immune to the BJP's influence are now embracing the party," he said.
He claimed the BJP now has a strong presence across most parts of the country.
"Barring 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.
