Hindustan Times (Noida)

BJP’S Bengal election campaign to focus on central govt schemes

- Smriti Kak Ramachandr­an smriti.kak@hindustant­imes.com

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing to launch an informatio­n blitzkrieg in poll-bound West Bengal, particular­ly in Trinamool Congress (TMC) stronghold­s, to draw the people’s attention to the loss of benefits resulting from the non-implementa­tion of central schemes in the state.

According to party functionar­ies privy to the details, the BJP is keen on pivoting the election campaign in Bengal on economic developmen­t and wants to highlight the discrepanc­ies in the implementa­tion of schemes such as housing for the poor, water supply and gas connection­s for the poor.

“In TMC stronghold­s such as Kolkata Uttar, Kolkata Dakshin and parts of Jadavpur, the party will carry out targeted canvassing, reaching out to women, the poor and Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes who have been deprived of the benefits of the schemes,” said a senior party leader aware of the campaign strategy, requesting anonymity.

The BJP is seeking to attract the 35.9 million women voters who make up 49% of the electorate, the SC communitie­s that account for 23.51% of the population and the STS that are 5.8% of the population, according to the 2011 census.

In the 2019 general elections as well as a clutch of assembly polls including in Bihar last year, the BJP accrued electoral gains from leveraging the response to schemes that offered subsidised housing for the poor, free gas connection­s for households that relied on wood and other polluting fuels for cooking, rural electrific­ation and constructi­on of toilets to end open defecation.

Since women voters were perceived to have played a key role in the party’s performanc­e; it wants to create a constituen­cy of women supporters as well.

Union minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told HT in an interview that the West Bengal polls will be contested on the plank of developmen­t for the first time. Lashing out at the TMC government, he said nearly 7 million small and marginal farmers in the state had lost out on cash transfers of ₹6,000 per year. While the TMC has been supportive of the ongoing farmers’ protest for a repeal of three contentiou­s farm laws, the BJP has drawn attention to how for about 25 months now, the state government has refused to pass on the benefits of the Kisan Samman Nidhi programme.

The TMC says it has several schemes aimed at providing health-care and empowermen­t of women and the economical­ly weaker sections. “Our party has walked the talk on empowermen­t for women. We gave more representa­tion to women in elections...,” said a TMC requesting anonymity.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India