New Delhi: The Congress Finally, the suspense in Kerala ended on Wednesday. Ten days after the UDF’s historic mandate, VD Satheesan was named Chief Minister. For a party that had just won 63 seats while the UDF alliance had won 102, the delay was not about numbers or alliance arithmetic. It was about Congress being unable to get out of its own way.Across the country, in West Bengal BJP The same thing was done in about 48 hours. Won 207 seats, a state for the first time in the party’s history, and before the celebrations could properly begin (or Mamata had resigned) Suvendu Adhikari was named CM.

A similar scene was seen in Assam also, where the saffron party won a massive mandate. There was never much doubt about the BJP’s choice for Chief Minister. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has led the party to consecutive victories in the state and has also played a key role in expanding the BJP’s footprint in the North East, was the obvious choice.Also read: How 2026 Assam victory establishes ‘outsider’ Himanta as the party’s next generation leader?The two parties achieved historic victories in the same election cycle, yet they took completely different approaches afterward. One walks as if he has done this before. Others believe that she is struggling with internal turmoil even after securing a historic mandate.One side sees victory as the beginning of control; Others often consider it a conversation starter.So, what does BJP understand about victory that Congress has to re-learn?

BJP’s favorite trick

The BJP’s approach in choosing chief ministers since 2014 has been following a clear pattern. When the party wins a state, it often avoids choosing a clear contender. Instead, it gives the top post to someone who is not well known outside the state but has worked closely with the grassroots or local leadership.The idea behind this strategy is simple. This prevents regional powers from becoming too powerful. It also ensures that victory is seen as a mandate for the party and its central leadership and not for any local leader. Also, it sends a message to party workers that loyalty to the organization matters more than personal ambition.The track record supports it. When the BJP won Haryana in 2014, it went with first-time MLA Manohar Lal Khattar. when it was changed Vijay Rupani Another first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel got a job in Gujarat in 2021. In December 2023, after winning in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP sent a clear message about its changing leadership model. Despite winning big, veterans Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh were left behind for the top post. Instead, the party chose relatively low-profile leaders, Bhajan Lal Sharma, Mohan Yadav and Vishnu Dev Sai, in a sign of preference for new faces over strong regional stalwarts. Add Tripura’s Biplab Deb, Uttarakhand’s Pushkar Singh Dhami, Manipur’s N Biren Singh and Tripura’s Manik Saha to the list. These were not household names outside their states. However, he was chosen to rule quietly under the national banner of the BJP while the central leadership held the real reins.The BJP sometimes allows strong regional leaders to emerge. Yogi Adityanath Uttar Pradesh is a clear example of this; Leaders like Devendra Fadnavis, who worked in the RSS ecosystem for decades, were also rewarded with the top post. But this usually happens when the party is already firmly established there.

What does Congress do instead?

Before delving into why these cases in Assam and Bengal differ from the party’s general approach, it is worth looking at what the BJP’s tightly controlled chief ministerial selection process is designed to avoid: prolonged public power struggles after electoral victory.This contradiction became visible after Karnataka in 2023, when the Indian National Congress spent several days in an open feud between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. Both the leaders lobbied the MLAs, both presented their views in Delhi and the internal competition came to the fore. Siddaramaiah eventually became the Chief Minister, while Shivakumar was made the Deputy Chief Minister; However, their rivalry continues to make headlines even today.This too was not an isolated incident. After victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in 2018, the Congress turned every victory into a lengthy dialogue on leadership. There was a tough contest between Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia for control in Madhya Pradesh. In Rajasthan, the feud between Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot lasted longer than the government, almost leading to its fall in 2020.Now, in May 2026, the same drama played out in Kerala too. The Congress-led United Democratic Front won a major victory, securing 102 seats in the 140-member assembly, of which the Congress alone won 63 seats. But even after such a clear mandate, it took ten days for the party to announce VD Satheesan as the new Chief Minister of the state, while other poll-going states had already announced the name of their CM. The contest was reduced to three names: AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, leader of opposition in the assembly VD Satheesan and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala. Intense lobbying, competing camps and differing views within the party reportedly prolonged the process, while other states going to the polls had already named their chief ministers. Meetings between Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and senior Congress leaders continued throughout the week, while the prolonged uncertainty led to memes, online ridicule and frustration among party workers.When the announcement finally came, Satheesan had long appeared to be the clear frontrunner.

First Himanta, then Suvendu

Then why did BJP deviate from its own strategy in both Assam and Bengal?The answer is simpler than it seems: it actually wasn’t. The playbook was never about casting unknown faces. It was about choosing people who would not dominate the central leadership or create independent power centres. Himanta Biswa Sarma is template. He joined the BJP from the Congress in 2015 and spent several years building the party’s footprint across the Northeast as convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance. By the time the BJP won Assam in 2021, he was a clear contender for the top spot. This was the reason why the party had the numbers to win. The central leadership recognized this and acted accordingly.

Suvendu Adhikari’s path to the post of Bengal CM is also based on this logic.Adhikari’s political career started in the Congress before moving to TMC with his family when Mamata Banerjee formed the party in 1998. He was at the center of the Nandigram movement in 2007, the movement that broke the Left Front’s hold on rural Bengal and made Mamata a genuine mass leader. He won the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and held it in 2014. In 2016, he moved into state politics, winning Nandigram and moving into Mamata’s cabinet as transport minister, later also handling irrigation and water resources. His split with TMC in late 2020, due to his uneasiness with the growing role of Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee within the party, was the biggest blow to TMC ahead of the 2021 elections. He joined the BJP in December 2020 at a rally in Midnapore along with Amit Shah.Then came the decisive moments. In 2021, he contested against Mamata Banerjee in her chosen constituency Nandigram and defeated her by 1,956 votes. Five years later, in 2026, he did it again, this time in Mamata’s traditional stronghold of Bhabanipur, defeating her by over 15,000 votes. He also won Nandigram.

Insider benefits

What makes Adhikari’s appointment particularly significant is not what he did to TMC, but what he knows about it.He spent more than two decades building the Trinamool Congress from the ground up. He knows how rural networks work, how district power structures operate, and who the key operators are at the booth level in many districts.This makes a lot of sense for what happens next. BJP’s victory in Bengal is not the end of the story; This is the beginning of a consolidation challenge. TMC’s grassroots organization, which was built hard over 15 years, did not disappear overnight when it lost the elections. Party workers, district leaders, local powerful people who used to run things under TMC, they are all still there, and many of them are now looking which way the wind is blowing.

what will happen next

In the end, the contradiction between Bengal and Kerala was not really about Suvendu Adhikari or VD Satheesan. It was about what happens inside two parties when victory comes.BJP considers power as a system. Decisions are centralized, hierarchy is clear and uncertainty is reduced. Sometimes this means surprising chief ministers. Sometimes, like in Assam and Bengal, it means recognizing when a leader becomes too politically important to ignore. But either way, the party moves quickly, projects authority and ensures that the focus remains on the organization.Congress is still struggling with that trend. Even after major victories, it often appears stuck in negotiations, balancing factions rather than controlling them. What should look like confidence starts looking like hesitation. BJP believes in seizing power and consolidating it; Congress still considers it something worth talking about and sharing. One has a system. Conversation takes place with others.