A political celebration inside Asutosh College has triggered buzz after students allegedly applied saffron tilaks on portraits of several iconic Bengali figures following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP’s) victory in the Bengal Assembly elections.

According to college authorities, the incident took place on Tuesday evening when a group of students entered the college common room chanting slogans such as ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Har har Modi’.

The students then allegedly placed saffron tilaks on portraits of eminent personalities, including Rabindranath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Sister Nivedita, and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Watch the video below:

The development comes days after the BJP’s dramatic rise to power in West Bengal, a result that has visibly altered the political mood across several campuses in the state.

The slogans and symbolic use of saffron inside the historic South Kolkata college quickly became a talking point among students and faculty members.

College principal Manas Kabi claimed that some of the students involved in the celebration were previously linked to the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the student wing of the Trinamool Congress.

According to him, the students appeared eager to publicly signal their support for the BJP and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after the election results.

Kabi further stated that representatives of the ABVP later met him and distanced themselves from the incident. “They told me those involved were hooligans and had no connection with the ABVP,” he said.

Nikhil Das, a member of the ABVP state working committee, denied organisational involvement and asserted that the ABVP does not even have a formal unit functioning inside Asutosh College.

The incident has now added to the growing political churn being witnessed across Bengal’s educational institutions in the aftermath of the Assembly poll results, with student loyalties and campus equations appearing to shift rapidly after the BJP’s victory.