I still remember that day vividly. I was travelling with Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Kolkata for a BJP National Executive meeting. In those days, it was quite common for the BJP to reserve an entire railway coach. We were on the Kalka Mail, a group of journalists accompanying Vajpayee. During that journey, Vajpayee told me something that stayed with me. He said he had not served as the private secretary to Syama Prasad Mookerjee but carried a lingering regret that the BJP had remained largely confined to the Hindi heartland. He believed that only when the party could establish itself as a truly pan-Indian force, especially in a state like West Bengal, then under Left rule, would that regret fade. Years later, that moment has arrived. The BJP has risen in Bengal , the very land associated with Syama Prasad Mookerjee. There is no doubt that this marks a historic shift. If we rewind a little further, the BJP’s early breakthroughs in Kolkata were symbolic but significant.…