Sidelined, but groundwork came to the rescue; How recent West Bengal elections pushed Smriti Irani back to the BJP's top table
Her return as National General Secretary under Nitin Nabin"s reshuffled team is a direct reward for that groundwork
NewsBharati 17-Aug-2026 16:20:26 PM
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On Monday, August 17, 2026, Smriti Irani's name appeared on the list of the BJP's new National General Secretaries under party chief Nitin Nabin's fresh organisational team. This isn't just another appointment; it is her return to the inner circle for one of the party's most recognisable faces and how! After a bruising personal defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and nearly two years away from formal party office, Irani is back at the centre of BJP's national machinery, and her road back runs directly through West Bengal.
_202608171624088113_H@@IGHT_400_W@@IDTH_700.jpg "Smriti Irani")
Long before she became a household name in Indian politics, Irani was a household name on Indian television, playing the iconic Tulsi Virani in "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi," where she returned recently after her 2024 defeat. Irani transitioned into full-time politics with the BJP in the mid-2000s and steadily built a reputation as one of the party's sharpest communicators, unafraid of combative television debates and known for her aggressive, articulate style on the campaign trail. Her political rise accelerated after 2014, when she was inducted into the Union Cabinet and given charge of the Human Resource Development Ministry, later moving to Textiles and then Women and Child Development. She became one of the most visible ministers in the Modi government, frequently deployed to counter opposition attacks and lead the BJP's messaging on women-centric welfare schemes.
Smriti Irani returned to her charachter Tulsi in TV show after sidelined by BJP for 2 years
Later, the 2019 Lok Sabha victory cemented her national stature as she defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his family bastion of Amethi, a result seen as one of the most symbolically significant upsets of that election. It made her a star campaigner and a fixture in BJP's central leadership discussions.
That momentum came to an abrupt halt in the 2024 general elections, when Irani lost the Amethi seat to Congress's Kishori Lal Sharma. The defeat cost her not just her parliamentary seat but effectively her Cabinet berth, since she was not re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha in the aftermath. For a leader who had spent a decade at the front line of BJP's political and ministerial architecture, it was a significant fall from prominence, and for a while, she operated largely outside the party's formal organisational structure, even as she remained a familiar voice in television debates and public commentary.
West Bengal campaigns and Irani's comeback
Irani has always been known for her sharp communication skills and her style of conducting free and fair talks with locals. It won't be an exaggeration to say that the recently West Bengal's high-stakes 2026 assembly election put Irani back in the spotlight, and, as it turned out, back on the party's radar for a leadership role. When the BJP determined to end 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule in the state, the party leaned heavily on leaders who could connect with Bengali voters, and Irani, fluent in Bengali and comfortable engaging directly with the electorate, emerged as one of its most effective campaigners in the state.
She was constantly present through the campaign, from riding a scooter through crowded lanes in South 24 Parganas to accompanying Ratna Debnath, mother of the RG Kar case victim, as she filed her nomination from Panihati. Irani used the moment to sharply criticise Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her "outsider" remark aimed at BJP campaigners. She also took the lead on the party's messaging around women's safety and welfare, sharing a platform with fellow leader Ravi Shankar Prasad following the debate around the Constitution Amendment Bill on women's reservation.
In interviews through the campaign, Irani projected unwavering confidence in the BJP's prospects, repeatedly targeting Banerjee over law and order and alleged infiltration issues, while pushing back on the TMC's charge that the Centre's funds weren't being properly utilised. She argued that the changing dynamics on the ground reflected the BJP's growing footprint in the state, and insisted the party, not the Left or Congress, had become the TMC's principal challenger this time.
As polling progressed, she also praised the security arrangements and the Election Commission's handling of the process, while accusing the TMC of trying to vitiate the atmosphere around the vote. Her sustained, high-visibility campaigning, covering rallies, door-to-door outreach, and sharp television interventions, made her one of the more prominent central leaders associated with the state unit's ground effort.
The results vindicated the party's bet. The BJP swept to a landslide victory in the 2026 West Bengal elections, ending the Trinamool Congress's 15-year hold on power and becoming the first right-wing party to form a government in the state, on the back of a record voter turnout of nearly 94 percent. For a party that had fallen short of Bengal's mandate in 2021 and even in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, this was a landmark breakthrough, and Irani's role in the campaign can be widely seen as one of the contributing factors that restored her standing within the organisation.
Her return as National General Secretary under Nitin Nabin's reshuffled team is a direct reward for that groundwork, it seems. This is also proof that sustained campaigning and grassroots connect, even without a legislative seat, can still be a pathway back to the party's decision-making core. It further reflects a broader pattern in the new BJP set-up, which blends seasoned leaders like Irani, Vasundhara Raje, and Manpreet Singh Badal with a new generation of organisational figures, as the party looks ahead to state elections and the 2029 Lok Sabha battle.
For Irani, the appointment closes a two-year chapter of being politically sidelined and marks her formal re-entry into the BJP's national leadership, this time not on the back of a personal electoral win, but on the strength of the party's own victory in a state she fought hard to help deliver.
Siddhi Somani
Siddhi Somani is known for her satirical and factual hand in Economic, Social and Political writing. Having completed her post graduation in Journalism, she is currently engaged in completing her Masters in Politics. The author meanwhile is also exploring her hand in analytics and statistics.