BJP making all efforts to emerge stronger

By Barun Das Gupta. Dated: 3/22/2019 12:12:09 AM

Trinamool dominating poll campaign in Bengal

Mamata Banerjee stole a march over her rivals by announcing her list of candidates for Lok Sabha within two days (March 14) of the Election Commission announcing the poll schedule. And the very next day, Central paramilitary forces arrived in the State and were deployed in the districts. Their presence was heartily welcomed by the opposition - BJP, Congress and CPI-M, while the TMC questioned the rationale behind their early deployment.. Whether their imposing omnipresence in the State will strike terror in some sections of the electorate while gladden the hearts of some others, is a moot question.
Judging by organizational strength, the TMC is undoubtedly the strongest and most organized party - even in comparison with BJP. The large number of welfare projects Mamata has started during the past eight years (like free treatment and surgical operations in all government hospitals) for different sections of rural and urban people have endeared her to more people.
Mamata sprang another surprise this time by giving 41 per cent nomination to women candidates, against 27 per cent in 2014. She had enjoyed the support of women and the minority people all along. This is expected to rise this time. The polarizing politics of the BJP and its allied organizations in the Sangh Parivar has left the minorities with no other choice than the TMC. They know that the CPI-M and the Congress cannot give them protection against attacks by communal forces. That apart, the charisma of Mamata Banerjee remains undiminished.
There is no denying the fact that the TMC is faction-ridden in many districts. To prevent the inner-party feuds from affecting the poll results, Mamata has given nomination to such candidates who belong to no faction. Also, she has not given nomination to seventeen sitting MPs. The nomination of Subrata Mukherjee, Minister, Panchayats and Rural Development. as candidate for Bankura constituency, is a shrewd move by Mamata. The TMC is riven with factionalism there and the BJP is a countable force. Mukherjee is familiar with Bankura and its problems. His is a good choice.
Seventeen sitting MPs have been axed this time and new candidates fielded. State TMC president Subrata Bakshi who was elected from South Calcutta is not contesting this time as he wants to devote his entire time to strengthening the party.
Other parties have their own problems. The main rival of TMC is BJP. But it is busy now inducing defections from other parties. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh has frankly admitted that there are few in his party who are competent enough to stand for Lok Sabha,. That's why the party has to wean away candidates from other parties. Ghosh also gave a broad hint that money is playing a major role in organizing defections when he said that the BJP has money enough to buy out the entire TMC party!
There is no denying the fact that by spending money liberally, the BJP has been able to expand the party organization in the traditionally Left West Bengal. Its polarizing politics and communal propaganda has influenced some people. But to what extent and how far hatred and religious intolerance has been able to cloud the vision of common people will be known only after the polls. In the last panchayat elections the BJP emerged second after the TMC, though a distant second. A socio-political study may be able to find out why BJP has grown in the traditionally Left Bengal and in spite of the fact that its politics and ideology are an antithesis of the State's culture, ethos and the tradition of tolerance/
Coming to the Left (which practically means the CPI-M) and the Congress, both are minor players in the State's politics. They have made themselves irrelevant. CPI-M's strange dialectical deduction has led to the conclusion that the TMC and the BJP are obverse and reverse of the same coin. The intense political war Mamata is waging against the BJP is all a "got up game". The CPI-M has to fight both the parties simultaneously. The CPI-M has an uncanny ability not to see the obvious and formulate strange theories to reach conclusions which it thinks are true.
BJP's avowed aim is to win 23 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. It considers TMC as its main enemy. But the CPI-M will not admit it, Their mantra is "Didi-bhai-Modi-bhai ek hai." The result is the CPI-M's increasing alienation from the people. It is significant that the impressive Brigade rally that the party held on February 3, has failed to tone up the party organization or galvanize the party workers. It proved to be a one-day wonder.
The Congress, too, is a decaying force in Bengal. It has no universally respected and acceptable leader. There are three or four rival factions. The party was at a loss to know what its relations with the CPI-M be. Will it be an electoral alliance or just a sharing of seats? The CPI-M unilaterally announced candidates for 25 seats, leaving 17 seats for the Congress, in a "take-it-or-leave-it" manner. The Congress has taken it as an affront and announced that it will have no truck with the CPI-M. It will go it alone.
Former PCC president Adhir Chowdhury will find it difficult to retain his Berhampur fort this time. TMC leader and minister Shubhendu Adhikari has sworn to ensure his defeat. He has already weaned away most of Chowdhury's erstwhile lieutenants. To add to the discomfiture of the Congress, Mausam Benazir Noor, the sitting Congress MP from Malda, recently defected to the Congress and is contesting now on a TMC effect.
The BJP may lose both the seats it is holding now - Asansol and Darjeeling. Its avowed aim of winning 23 seats seems like a pipe-dream. But it may gain a seat or two in Purulia, Bankura and North Bengal. The poll campaign is yet to pick up and the picture will be clear in the coming weeks. (IPA Service)

 

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