3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 21, 2026 08:35 PM IST
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, is developing a management case study on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s organisational strategy during the recent West Bengal elections. The institute said it would be used to teach strategy, organisational capability, and leadership in a non-business setting.
IIM Calcutta Director Prof Alok Kumar Rai, Prof Ramya T Venkateswaran of the Strategy Group and Prof Bodhibrata Nag, a retired professor from the Operations Group, are preparing the case study.
Once completed, it will be published through the IIM Calcutta Case Research Centre in collaboration with Ivy Publishing, making it available to business schools and management institutions in India and abroad.
According to IIM Calcutta, the case study will examine the organisational and strategic aspects of the BJP’s campaign for the West Bengal Assembly polls. It will analyse how organisational structures, leadership, and management principles were used during the campaign and examine whether they offer lessons applicable in management education.
Interactions with Amit Shah and Suvendu Adhikari
As part of the research, the team has interacted with Sunil Bansal, the BJP’s election in-charge for West Bengal; Samik Bhattacharya, the party’s state president; and his predecessor, Sukanta Majumdar. The researchers are also attempting to interact with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to gather additional perspectives for the study.
The case study will examine how grassroots organisational capabilities were developed and the role of booth-level structures, cadre motivation, constituency segmentation, communication strategy, candidate selection, and local outreach in building electoral competitiveness. It will also examine whether organisational capabilities developed in one political and cultural environment can be transferred to another with different social and political conditions.
Under established management frameworks
The researchers will apply several established management frameworks, including the Resource-Based View, VRIO Framework, McKinsey 7-S Framework, and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, to analyse organisational resources, alignment and adaptability, the institute said. The study will also explore whether capabilities built during an election campaign can be translated into governance after assuming office.
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IIM Calcutta said the project would be accompanied by a detailed teaching note to help faculty members use it in classrooms. The case study is intended to encourage discussion on whether the BJP’s performance in the 2026 West Bengal elections can be understood as a sustainable competitive advantage, a resource-based advantage, or the result of campaign execution in a specific political context.