The BJP’s very strong win in the West Bengal Assembly elections has caused a surprising effect: a wave of memes giving Messi credit for the political change. Now that the BJP will end the TMC’s fifteen years in power, social media users have brought up the anger from Messi’s troubled visit to Kolkata to explain how voters were thinking.
How a football night became political fuel
What began as a big sporting occasion in December 2025 at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium turned into a disaster for public relations. Messi was there for only about twenty minutes, and it was mostly for selfies with local VIPs, while many of the fans who had paid over 5,000 Rupees couldn’t even see him.
People’s annoyance turned into disorder. The event ended with destruction, seats were broken and posters ripped down. Satadru Datta, the person who organised it, was held by the police and critics called the whole thing a worldwide embarrassment. Months later, those pictures popped up again online as people used humour to show how unhappy they were.
From early leads to regime change
We first saw this change in voting on Monday, May 4th, when the early results showed the BJP had passed the halfway point with more than 170 seats in the lead. It looked like they were about to end Mamata Banerjee and the TMC’s fifteen years of ruling the state, showing a huge and important change.
This change became definite as the final results came in. In 2026 the BJP had a landslide victory in the Bengal elections, winning in places where the TMC had always been strong, like Presidency and Medinipur. Supporters said it was a brilliant political strategy, and those against the BJP were shocked by how quickly and completely things had changed.
The so-called Messi Effect
Online, people started to tell the story as the ‘Messi Effect’ – a strange but coincidental connection between football and politics. Messi came to Kolkata in and Mamata Banerjee took power after thirty-four years of the Left government. He came back in 2025 and 2026, and the TMC’s luck turned around.
People posting online said TMC leaders had made Messi uncomfortable at the stadium, and some joked he was secretly working for the BJP. Others described the Argentinian player as the ‘Dhurandhar’ (a master strategist), saying he altered the direction of Bengal. The BJP in Bengal also said the state had been humiliated by how Messi was treated and called for a return to a good sporting atmosphere.
Three takeaways from this online framing stand out:
– A mishandled event became a symbol of VIP excess
– Satire turned a grievance into a viral narrative
– A coincidence was recast as political causality
What it means for West Bengal politics
These memes don’t prove that one thing caused another, but they made people remember the completely unnecessary mess of the situation. In a close election where what people think is important, the Salt Lake event gave a quick way to express the annoyance at poor management and a sense of being owed things, and it encouraged criticism as people went to vote.
The results of the election are real. The BJP is now in a position to decide the new priorities of how the state is run, and the TMC needs to examine their policies and how they are seen by the public. Whether it was a coincidence or not, Messi’s short, messy night is now a warning in the political story of Bengal.
What comes next
As the new government takes office, two questions will shape the narrative:
– Can the administration sustain gains in TMC strongholds?
– Will public events be managed with greater transparency and fairness?
From memes to mandate
In the end, the numbers decided the outcome, but the jokes made the feeling even stronger. The early results on May t4 suggested what would happen, and by 2026 the result was clear. For many voters, the story of Messi became a quick way of expressing their more general unhappiness, and their votes were the final judgement.
