Modi’s craving for jhalmuri, Bengal’s iconic street food, stirs up hot political row
PM’s roadside bite of Bengal’s spicy puffed rice snack turns into a flashpoint; TMC alleges it stalled their campaigning in a crucial tribal battleground
The high-stakes 2026 election campaign in West Bengal just got a 'spicy' twist.
What started as Prime Minister’s craving for Bengal’s iconic street food, jhalmuri (spiced puffed rice snack) has spiralled into a political row, with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) accusing Modi of using Bengali's popular snack to "stall" the rival party’s election campaign.
This is what happened. Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigning in Bengal’s tribal heartland – Jhargram stopped at a roadside stall to eat jhalmuri. He asked the vendor for the humble snack, saying, “Bhai, hame apna jhalmuri khilao,” (brother, feed me your jhalmuri), before asking the price and paying with a 10-rupee note.
A frenzied crowd gathered at the spot thrilled to see PM Modi in his 'man of the masses' moment. They broke out in chants such as “Jai Shri Ram”, "Narendra Modi zindabad”, and “Bharat Mata ki jai”. It was ideal for a photo-op, which predictably popped up on Modi’s X page shortly after, with the PM saying in his post that he ate some "delicious jhalmuri" in Jhargram between four rallies across West Bengal on a packed Sunday.
Devious stop
The TMC, however, felt there was more to the jhalmuri stop. TMC claimed that his unscheduled roadside stop prevented Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and his wife, Kalpana Soren, from landing their helicopter in Jhargram for a planned campaign event. The Sorens were to attend Trinamool public meetings in Dantan and Keshiyari, but they were upstaged by Prime Minister's "photo-ops".
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According to the party, the Soren family was forced to abandon their schedule and return to Ranchi because the PM allegedly dilly-dallied over a spicy snack and extended his stay in the district. TMC argued that the PM’s "impromptu" food stop was a calculated move to hinder opposition campaigning.
Jhargram remains a critical battleground where tribal votes are pivotal and the presence of Hemant Soren—a prominent tribal leader—is seen as a significant threat to the BJP's prospects in the region.
"Narendra Modi's Adivasi-birodhi mindset has been exposed for all to see. Two democratically elected leaders. Grounded. Kept waiting for hours. And ultimately forced to return to Ranchi without completing their scheduled programme, all because a Prime Minister's extended snack break and photo-ops took precedence over their democratic rights and constitutional standing," TMC said in social media post.
Snack as smokescreen?
If the BJP has been accused by Opposition parties of using women's reservation to push the delimitation and expand the size of Lok Sabha, what then is a mere jhalmuri in their hands? In politics, where optics and political messaging are key elements in an election campaign, it appears that even the simple jhalmuri can ostensibly act as a smokescreen to stop TMC’s election campaigning from taking off.