CARVING OUT A NICHE

An important feature ofthe BJP’s WestBengal strategyis consolidating votes from the SCs and STs. Here’s how:

DALITS: Dalits constitute 23 per cent of the state's population. The BJP is assiduously working to woo the Matua, an SC sub-caste having a sizeable presence in at least six Lok Sabha seats. When PM Narendra Modi recently launched his Lok Sabha campaign from Thakurnagar bordering Bangladesh, he called on centenarian Binapani Devi, known as Boro Ma, the community matriarch. Her grandson Shantanu Thakur, an emerging community leader, was on the dais with the PM.

TRIBALS: STs make up 6 per cent of the state’s population and are concentrated in certain districts. The BJP scored its first success in the tribal-dominated districts of Jhargram and Purulia — which have 30 and 20 per cent Adivasi population, respectively — in the 2018 panchayat polls. In Jhargram and Purulia, the BJP netted 42 and 34 per cent seats in Jhargram and Purulia, respectively; the TMC got 48 per cent and 43 per cent seats.

The RSS is active in the tribal belt through its Ekal Vidyalayas and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams. But the BJP didn’t depend on the RSS’s support structures alone. In the rural polls, it had struck an understanding with the Adivasi Samanvaya Manch, an outfit said to be backed by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and the Bharat Jakar Majhi Pargana Mahal.