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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  BJP charts plan to make further inroads in West Bengal politics
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BJP charts plan to make further inroads in West Bengal politics

With TMC mired in Saradha scam controversy and after a bypoll victory, BJO believes it can make a mark in next year's municipal elections in Kolkata

Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/MintPremium
Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

New Delhi: Riding high on popularity wave of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the recent victory in the assembly bypolls—its first in West Bengal—the message from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah to his cadre in the state is to start preparing for municipal elections due next summer.

With the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of chief minister Mamata Banerjee pushed to the back foot by Saradha chit fund scam, senior BJP leaders believe that the party has a decent chance to emerge as the main opposition party in West Bengal, where the influence of both the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, is waning.

On a recent visit to Kolkata, Amit Shah asked the state-level BJP leaders to prepare for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections which will be held simultaneously in May 2015.

“While we are preparing for municipal elections, the BJP has divided the 294 assembly constituencies of West Bengal into six different regions. Six committees will study the voting pattern in each of constituencies and also monitor formation of booth committees so that the party is prepared for elections," said Sidharth Nath Singh, in-charge of the BJP in West Bengal.

To further boost its chances in the coming municipal elections and also taking a step towards preparations for assembly elections due in May 2016, the BJP in West Bengal is rapidly enlisting new members, including—according to Singh —from the cadre of sworn rivals CPM. “Since the 16 May (general election) result when the BJP got the mandate of the people, the party has inducted 1.5 lakh people in West Bengal and many of them are cadre of CPM. We have done a training programme for these members so that they know about the BJP and the ideology of the party since they have been part of a different ideology," said Singh.

The BJP leader elaborated the party has trained 50 state-level leaders, who have been tasked to train another 100 newly inducted BJP members at the district-level who will then go and spread the message of the BJP’s ideology in wards and at the panchayat level in villages.

“The political situation in West Bengal is such that there is a growing disillusionment against the TMC government, specially in urban areas. The CPM continues to project itself with the same old faces, which is no longer are acceptable to the people, and the Congress does not wield a strong influence. There is a TINA (there is no alternative) factor and that is where BJP is able to make some inroads though it is too early to assess their chances in 2016 assembly polls,"said Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, professor of political science at Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University.

Meanwhile for CPM, which held uninterrupted power in the state for 35 years till it got voted out in 2011, the results of the by-elections and the erosion of political clout is a matter of concern. Senior leaders in the party feel it has failed to recover from its electoral defeats of both the state polls in 2011 and general elections earlier this year.

The BJP opened its account in the West Bengal assembly in the recent bypolls after winning the Basirhat (South) seat.

It was a razor-thin victory of 1,586 votes over the TMC, but it managed to beat the CPM—BJP’s staunch ideological foe—to a humiliating third place.

“The bypoll results are very bad and we are facing continuous decline in many districts of the state. We made some administrative mistakes during our government, and it alienated the common masses. Our state organization became weak and our middle-level cadre turned corrupt and high-handed," a senior CPM politburo member said on conditions of anonymity.

“The way ahead for the CPM in Bengal is that we re-establish our relations with the poor, project ourselves as different from other political parties and, most importantly, admit our mistakes in the public and resolve to correct them," the person quoted above said, adding that the BJP is a “challenge" for the Left Front in the state.

In the Chowrangee seat, the CPM finished a distant fourth to the TMC, BJP and the Congress party, beating only the independents and the votes polled in the favour of “none of the above" (Nota) option.

“After the 2011 election, it may be a bit late but it’s not a quick fix—the party is now trying to go back to the people. To try and regain the vote base, you have to go back to your own class as a Marxist party and then refurbish, re-position itself, re-prioritize the issues," said Mohammed Salim, a member (central committee) of the CPM’s West Bengal state committee.

The Congress party, however, continues to remain a fringe player in the state which is ruled by its one-time ally TMC. Senior leaders of the party feel that although it had low hopes of winning either of the two bypoll seats, it was confident that it would finish runner-up after the TMC.

“The results were both surprising and alarming to us. West Bengal is a priority for the Congress party but everyone has to work very hard and on a constant basis if we want to revive ourselves in the state. Also, we cannot undermine the fact post-elections that the BJP is posing a serious challenge, the kind we haven’t seen in the state before," a senior leader in the party’s state unit said.

Pretika Khanna contributed to the story.

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Published: 21 Sep 2014, 11:52 PM IST
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