BJP scoffs at Mamata’s target of clean sweep in 2019

KOLKATA:Three The CM is eyeing a clean sweep of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. My advice to her is she should first try to ensure victory in the 34 seats her party won in 2014 general elections. DILIP GHOSH, Bengal BJP president

days after Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee vowed to make a clean sweep of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, scoffed at her target and dared her to retain the 34 her party has in the current term.

In 1989, the Left Front winning 37 seats from the state is a record for any single party in Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress chief is one of the key proponents of the anti-BJP federal Front in run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

On July 21 she also announced that her party will organise a mega rally of all the parties in Kolkata’s historic Brigade Parade ground on January 19.

“The chief minister is eyeing a clean sweep of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. My advice to her is she should first try to ensure victory in the 34 seats her party won in 2014. She is scared of the upswing of the BJP in Bengal, and is trying to motivate her party workers by setting such targets,” Ghosh said in Asansol Tuesday.

Significantly, BJP national president Amit Shah has already declared that Bengal will be one of their focus states where they want to win at least 22 seats.

Ghosh said national leaders of the party will be regularly visiting Bengal in the coming days.

“The prime minister has already addressed a rally in Midnapore on July 16. Our national president, Amit Shah, has also visited the state a number of times. The PM will again attend a rally in Kolkata on January 23 next year,” said Ghosh.

TMC leaders retorted by saying Ghosh’s comments were an indication the BJP was losing ground nationally. “That’s why their leaders are indulging in daydreams and setting targets like 22 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal. Take my word, Trinamool Congress will secure all 42 seats,” state food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick said.

Political analyst and psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty believes the BJP’s target of 22 seats is impossible since it was yet to build a block-level organisation, though it did make a mark in some tribal-dominated belts.

“In 2014, the BJP achieved optimum results in northern and central India, which they will not be able to retain in 2019. So they are focusing on eastern states such as West Bengal and Odisha. But their politics of exclusion will not help them. On the other hand, I cannot totally rule out the chief minister’s target of clean sweep in 42 seats considering the fact that her party continues to grow in strength,” Chakraborty said.