Kolkata: On January 30, 2026, six weeks before the election announcement, Bengali digital creator Sayak Chakraborty ignited a political controversy with a video posted from Kolkata’s historic Olypub restaurant on Park Street. He alleged that he and his companions were unknowingly served beef instead of the mutton steak they had ordered.The complaint quickly escalated from a dining dispute into a polarised political flashpoint. Following Chakraborty’s formal complaint, police arrested an Olypub waiter, a Muslim by religion.BJP figures immediately amplified the incident. Leaders like Tarunjyoti Tewari shared the video, while Keya Ghosh used the event to question whether Hindus had become “soft targets.” The restaurant dispute was swiftly repurposed as a broader commentary on Hindu identity and alleged marginalisation under the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.Olypub management issued an apology, maintaining the incident was a genuine, unintentional error. Amid mounting social media accusations that he was acting as a political operative – claims he strongly denied – Chakraborty later stated he wanted to withdraw the complaint.In September, BJP filed its election accounts with the Election Commission of India (ECI). Under Schedule 3, among the media advertising paid for by the party’s Delhi office, there is a line mentioning Sayak Charaborty: “Rs 2,50,000.”The chronology here requires clarification. Because the ECI expenditure window strictly covers March 15 to May 6, 2026, this financial document does not prove the January Olypub video was a paid political stunt. Asserting that the BJP financed that specific restaurant controversy oversteps the available evidence.Instead, the financial record establishes a different, but equally significant, trajectory. A digital creator who organically occupied a highly useful cultural fault line for the party subsequently transitioned onto its official media payroll during the formal election campaign.The Kundu proxy allegationsThe same schedule may conceal a second financial connection to that night at Olypub.Sukanta Kundu, another Bengali digital creator, was present with Chakraborty during the restaurant dispute. While his own name does not appear anywhere in the BJP’s filing, two people who share his surname – Subrata Kundu, paid Rs 3 lakh, and Shikha Kundu, paid Rs 4.5 lakh – do. They have been identified as Kundu’s parents, raising allegations that the payments were routed through family members as proxies. Chakraborty is just one of roughly twenty Bengali creators, commentators and digital pages listed under the same schedule, who were collectively paid Rs 2.73 crore directly by the central headquarters. It is a fraction of the Rs 31.39 crore the BJP paid Google and Facebook for Bengal distribution. It is not clear whether these payments were booked as flat retainers for the entire election period. None of the content creators added any label to their posts clarifying whether they were paid promotion. The audience had no way to connect the money to any specific video or post.Payee as filedAmount (Rs)Suddhashil Ghosh51,00,000Noticias Infomedia Private Limited41,30,000Banglahunt Digital Media Pvt. Ltd.22,50,000The News Bangla22,00,000Political Daily20,80,000Madhyom Communications Private Limited20,65,000Jyotiraditya Roy17,80,000Priyanka Sarkar15,00,000Shamik Adhikary13,00,000Rudra Barta11,00,000Moumita Banik9,70,000Aaj Bangla News5,30,000Pinak Ki Bolchi5,25,000Shikha Kundu4,50,000Iti Karmakar3,00,000Subrata Kundu3,00,000Sayak Charaborty2,50,000Sangit Sarkar2,00,000Nadia News Pro1,27,000Punarvas1,00,000Spellings are as they appear in the filing. Together the twenty entries come up to Rs 2.73 crore.Beyond reach, it was more about renting trust and audienceThe roster reflects a deliberate spread across various audience demographics. It cover news channels that look like broadcast journalism, commentary pages, a former radio presenter who mostly posts about food and relationships, and a satirist. Between them, they reach audiences with almost nothing in common except a language.When paid political communication looks like newsSuddhashil Ghosh operates Priyo Bandhu Media, a YouTube news channel boasting over 1.02 million subscribers. He received Rs 51 lakh from the BJP election accounts. While claiming to provide “100% genuine content” and objective news analysis, the channel has an overwhelming, near-exclusive focus on attacking the TMC and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee while simultaneously promoting BJP leaders.His channel became a national point of controversy following the horrific rape and murder of a trainee doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Ghosh produced numerous highly emotive videos demanding accountability from the state government, effectively merging digital civil society activism with his paid political obligations. In September 2024, West Bengal Police executed a dramatic raid on his Sonarpur residence and seized multiple devices over a complaint regarding insulting remarks made about the Supreme Court.The BJP instantly capitalised on the raid, framing Ghosh as a courageous journalist, a martyr for free speech and a victim of state fascism. However, the revelation of the Rs 51 lakh payment contextually redefines the entirety of Priyo Bandhu Media. Also read: Election Commission Data Contradicts Suvendu Adhikari’s Claims on SIR Tribunal AppealsHis own Facebook profile features a single defining sentence describing himself as a “fighter to save Hindus, Bengalis, and Sanatanis.” This self-declared mission stands in stark contrast with his channel’s public positioning as a hub for objective news analysis.Operating in a similar vein is the channel Songe Adwitiya. Anchored by Adwitiya Roy and entirely managed, scripted and owned by Jyotiraditya Roy, the channel received Rs 17.8 lakh by the BJP. Presenting itself as the fastest-growing news analytics platform in Bengal, it frequently covers opinion polls, exit polls and judicial controversies with a distinct, highly calibrated anti-incumbency bias. Rudra Barta, a channel with nearly half a million subscribers and over 143 million total views, received Rs 11 lakh. Unlike channels attempting to maintain a veneer of neutrality, Barta explicitly focuses on Hindutva ideology and the extensive amplification of speeches by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Beyond individual personality-driven channels, the BJP heavily invested in a shadow ecosystem of digital news portals. These entities operate predominantly on YouTube and Facebook, meticulously adopting the aesthetics, graphics, studio setups and authoritative tone of traditional broadcast journalism to serve as narrative-laundering machines.A clipped Byron Biswas video shows why the distinction mattersOn April 25, during the election, a clipped video of TMC politician Byron Biswas circulated with the claim that he had conceded defeat. BJP’s official West Bengal account and BJP leader Amit Malviya were among those circulating the video. Bangla Hunt carried reports around the clip. Alt News then examined the longer video and found that Biswas’s remarks had been stripped of their context and the meaning changed.Bangla Hunt’s parent company received Rs 22.5 lakh from BJP during that same period. The Wall (Noticias Infomedia Pvt Ltd), one of the most highly visible Bengali digital news platforms, received a payment of Rs 41.3 lakh.Regional portals like the News Bangla (Rs 22 lakh) and Aaj Bangla News (Rs 5.3 lakh) were also funded to flood the regional digital news zone with favourable coverage. Social media news pages and opinion aggregators like Political Daily (Rs 20.8 lakh) and Pinak Ki Bolchi (Rs 5.25 lakh) ensured party talking points dominated the daily scrolling habits of the electorate.Also read: Bengal’s Voter-Deletion Requests Were Processed Faster and Succeeded Far More Often Than Inclusion Claims, ECI Data ShowsOne payment that does not fit the pattern of independent creators is the Rs 7.67 lakh received by Tidings Media Communications.The company, registered as Tidings Media & Communications Private Limited, is the corporate owner of Ei Samay, a prominent Bengali daily newspaper and digital platform, that it acquired from the Times Group in mid-2024. One of the key promoters of Tidings Media is Sanjay Basu, an advocate who has served as the senior standing counsel for the state of West Bengal at the Supreme Court. Basu is publicly recognised for his close links to senior TMC leadership, including Abhishek Banerjee. The funding of these entities under the opaque categorisation of media advertisements, but without the necessary disclosure, raises critical democratic questions. When a political party directly funds the digital outlets responsible for reporting on its campaigns, it creates a closed-loop information ecosystem. From political news to lifestyle audiencesPriyanka Sarkar, popularly known as RJ Priyanka, represents the soft-power flank of the digital strategy. A former radio jockey from Siliguri, Sarkar transitioned into a digital behemoth with over 3.3 million followers on Facebook and over 1.4 million on Instagram. Her content is typically apolitical, revolving around Bengali culture, lifestyle humour, travel vlogs and relationship storytelling.Sarkar received Rs 15 lakh from the BJP election funds. Because her vast audience follows her primarily for entertainment, relatability and cultural connection, any political messaging or subtle ideological framing, integrated into her content successfully, bypasses the typical cognitive defences of a viewer when watching a traditional political broadcast. Shamik Adhikary, known online as “Nonsane,” received Rs 13 lakh. Nine days before the Olypub video, he released a short film scrutinising the state government record on voter intimidation and women’s safety roughly two months ago. That single Facebook post, drew roughly 442,000 reactions, 26,800 comments and 67,000 shares. The shares are what is of significance here. As with Chakraborty, the timing means the film predates the ECI expenditure window. Adhikary publicly rejected claims that the video was made for money. The filing confirms a commercial relationship existed during the later official campaign period.Malviya, BJP IT cell chief, later defended him in public, while TMC figures said he was aligned with the party. The expenditure filing came months after all of that, recording the Rs 13 lakh paid to him inside the campaign window.Iti Karmakar, who operates the page Candid Caly, received Rs 3 lakh, while independent commentator Sangit Sarkar received Rs 2 lakh. These smaller disbursements indicate a granular approach to digital marketing. Interestingly, many of these influencers are now being taken to Uttar Pradesh by the Adityanath government to influence Bengali voters for the Uttar Pradesh polls.The ECI explicitly designed Schedules 24A and 24B to capture expenditure on virtual campaigns through social media platforms, apps and other means. Both schedules feature a dedicated column for the name of the content creator.In the BJP West Bengal filing, both of these schedules were left entirely blank. The party virtual campaign expenditure was declared as nil.Instead, the twenty creators and digital pages were grouped two schedules earlier under the broad category of electronic media advertising. Because the payments are recorded as flat retainers spanning March 15 to May 6 rather than tied to specific URLs or deliverables, a voter reviewing the documents can see that these individuals were paid, but cannot ascertain which viral video, political commentary or lifestyle post that money actually bought.This is the second part of a series examining the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) financial transactions with ‘content creators’ during the 2026 Bengal Assembly elections. Read the first part here.