BENGAL: BJP GAINS GROUND
The panchayat polls augur well for the party in 2019
BJP president Amit Shah is slated to visit Bengal on June 27, and he will be making a special stopover in Purulia—alongside the tribal districts of Jhargram and West Midnapore—which gave the party a firm footing in the recent panchayat elections. The saffron party won 602 seats against the ruling Trinamool Congress’s 726 here. In Jhargram, the BJP and independents wrested 399 seats, topping TMC’s tally of 371.
Indeed, the BJP has taken 18 per cent of the vote across the state to emerge as the main opposition to the TMC. The once formidable Left Front and the Congress have been left straggling at 4.5 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively. Saffron spin doctors are upbeat, saying ‘Ebar Bangla (This time Bengal)’, the BJP campaign to conquer the state, could well become a reality.
From fielding candidates in just 18 per cent of the panchayat seats in 2013, the BJP this year contested 48 per cent of the 58,000 panchayat seats. It also fielded more candidates than the Left and Congress put together. And unlike the blank it drew in 2013, the BJP won 5,500 panchayat seats this time. Party general secretary Sayantan Basu says the party has proved itself as an able alternative to the TMC. “We fought the Trinamool despite massive odds,” he says.
Interestingly, most of the BJP’s gains have come from the rapidly shrinking Left Front support base. Left leaders on the ground confirm the exodus. “At least 70 per cent of our leaders and workers have either become BJP candidates or rallied behind their candidates in Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura,” says a CPI(M) leader in West Midnapore, requesting anonymity.
Veteran Congress leader Abdul Mannan says CM Mamata Banerjee and the BJP are collectively intent on destroying West Bengal’s secular character. “She (Mamata) is trying to weaken the secular parties through her pro-defection policies,” he says.
Basu scoffs at the claim. “The Congress and the Left have been rejected in poll after poll. It’s clear that the people do not want to waste their votes,” he says. In fact, the panchayat polls saw anti-TMC voters in several districts coalescing behind the BJP. Political analysts say this could be the beginning of new political equations in the state. An official associated with the state election commission says, “Areas which saw huge turnout of voters—as high as 85 to 90 per cent—and lowest number of ballot-related complaints have given the verdict in favour of the opposition, mainly the BJP.” Indeed, with the EC’s stringent procedures, the coming Lok Sabha polls could significantly swing things the BJP’s way.
Coupled with the scores of RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP cadre on the ground, the party could have the organisational muscle to take on the Trinamool Congress. Will the state BJP be able to make Shah’s target of 22 (of the 42) Lok Sabha seats in Bengal a reality?
5,500 seats won by the BJP, of the 58,000 seats up for grabs in this year’s panchayat polls