West Bengal Elections: Fish and Meat Become Symbols of Political and Economic Discourse

Political campaigns in West Bengal are creatively using fish and meat, staples of Bengali culture, to connect with voters. This strategy highlights the significant economic importance of the state's non-vegetarian food industry, which supports numerous livelihoods and contributes substantially to exports, revealing a deeper economic narrative beyond political symbolism.

In West Bengal this time, there’s an innovative political campaign taking shape between Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party. While slogans and songs are familiar, the campaigns this time involve fish, a staple deeply embedded in Bengal’s food culture.

Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay, BJP’s candidate from Bidhannagar in Kolkata, took to the campaign trail holding a large fish. On Bengali New Year’s Day, another BJP candidate Koustav Bagchi also did the same, while TMC candidate and former Bengal minister Aroop Biswas too carried a fish during his campaign. Home Minister Amit Shah and former minister Smriti Irani have also joined the debate, signaling that the BJP is not against Bengal’s love for fish and meat. BJP MP Anurag Thakur was also seen eating fish and rice before the first phase of West Bengal polls.

This is perhaps a signal aimed at reassuring voters that a BJP government in West Bengal would not seek to curb non-vegetarian food habits. In a state where food is tightly woven into cultural identity, the gesture reflects BJP’s attempt to counter a persistent political narrative that has sought to portray the party as culturally restrictive.

Yet beyond the campaign optics, fish and meat in West Bengal represent far more than a political talking point. Beneath the noise of slogans and symbolism lies a vast, deeply entrenched economic ecosystem. The real story is unfolding in markets, supply chains and balance sheets, where Bengal’s non-vegetarian economy continues to operate as a powerful growth engine.

“Business and politics should not be mixed here. The prospect of growing domestic sales and exports for fish and meat is quite good. This will provide better livelihood to a large number of people,” said Ajitava Raycha Raychaudhuri, former professor and head, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University.

West Bengal’s non-vegetarian economy fuels value creation at multiple levels, from restaurants, quick-service formats, cloud kitchens, fisheries, poultry, cold-chain logistics, exports, to thousands of direct and indirect jobs, said Debaditya Chaudhury, Managing Director of Chowman, Oudh 1590, Chapter 2 & Chaudhury & Company.

“Bengal is not “non-veg” in a superficial sense. It is non-veg because ecology made it natural, history made it richer, and culture made it permanent,” said Indrajit Lahiri, author and food vlogger.

Fish production is an important livelihood in West Bengal. In 2011–12, it contributed 3.3% to the state’s GSDP, but this fell to 2.1% in 2022–23. In 2019–20, about 3.25% of the state’s population were fishermen. In 2020–21, marine products made up 5.46% of West Bengal’s total exports.

According to the Indian government’s Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2025, West Bengal accounts for about 12.46% of the country’s meat output, making it the largest producing state. West Bengal remains the second-largest fish producer with an annual output of about 2 million tonnes in 2025–26. The sector supports the livelihoods of nearly 3.2 million people.

While direct listed exposure to Bengal’s non-vegetarian consumption is limited, companies across poultry, quick-service restaurants and fisheries exports stand to benefit indirectly as organised consumption rises. Cold-chain gaps, high logistics costs and price volatility in feed and fuel continue to weigh on margins.

Unlike many North and West Indian markets, where vegetarian demand rises during festivals, West Bengal sees sustained consumption of fish and meat. A 2025 festive report from Swiggy highlights the scale of demand in Kolkata during Durga Puja, with orders peaking at 197 per minute. An estimated 98–99% of the population consumes non-vegetarian food, with nearly 18.9% of household expenditure going towards fish and meat.