Indian politicians are campaigning while holding fish. What is going on?

Indian politicians are campaigning while holding fish. What is going on?12 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSoutik BiswasIndia correspondentBBCRuling Trinamool Congress leaders campaign with fish as a symbol of identity in KolkataOn a sticky morning in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, Koustav Bagchi moves from door to door in a crisp white and red traditional attire, a fish in hand. Drums thud behind him as supporters chant his name. A lawyer-turned-politician and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s candidate from Barrackpore in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, Bagchi is banking on the piscine prop to do the quiet work of persuasion. There are no speeches about policy - just a visual cue: I am one of you.A few kilometres away in Kolkata's port area, another BJP candidate, Rakesh Singh, stages a similar spectacle. Dressed for effect and flanked by party workers, he hoists a fish repeatedly as he moves through early-morning crowds, taking on the city's mayor Firhad Hakim in one of the state's high-profile contests.In Bengal, fish is more than food - it is the bloodstream of the cuisine, woven into memory, ritual and everyday life, a marker of both identity and belonging.Across West Bengal, that resonance is now being staged as political theatre, with candidates brandishing fish to quell a very specific anxiety.In a country where food habits can be deeply political, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP is often associated with a more assertive, sometimes moralised vegetarianism. Periodic restrictions on meat sales in some BJP-ruled states and crackdowns linked to cow protection have helped cement that perception, even though India remains overwhelmingly non-vegetarian.In the West Bengal election, fish has slipped from the plate into the centre of the campaign, recast as proof of cultural fidelity and a rebuttal to charges of intrusion.BJP's Rakesh Singh holds up a fish repeatedly during his campaignChief Minister Mam...