Excessive dependence on central leadership may become BJP’s Achilles heel in West Bengal

BJP’s aim of coming to power in West Bengal may remain a distant dream due to the state unit’s excessive dependence on the central leadership and the Modi-Shah duo.

Since it cannot take any major decisions such as finalising issues to focus on against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government the Bengal BJP is yet to come up with a key issue of immediate public interest around which it can build up a sustained agitation against the ruling TMC.

This has become a major drawback for the state BJP. It seems that they are yet to realise that tasks such as strengthening booth-level organization and candidate selection for the Assembly election will not be done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The state leadership’s role in determining political strategy is only limited to identifying issues which then has to vetted by Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

With such a remote control way of functioning it has become difficult for BJP to get a grip on Bengal’s political culture and public mood. This has become a hurdle in creating a strong public image for state BJP leaders. They also have to bear the burden of the central leadership’s failure.

So far the state BJP leadership has been dealing with issues such as alleged minority appeasement and corruption by TMC without any sustained agitation.

At the upper level of the state unit TMC turncoats are being given priority by the central leadership which wants to capitalise on their experience and at the grassroots level cadres from other parties such as the CPI(M) are mostly defiant against the local BJP leadership.

State BJP sources said that the old-versus-new rivalry may cost BJP dearly in the 2021 Assembly elections despite its stunning success in Bengal in the last Lok Sabha elections where it bagged 18 seats.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has several advantages over BJP in this regard. Not only was she able to dislodge the Left Front government by zeroing in on issues of land acquisition and farmers’ rights but being the top policy maker of her party she is not dependent on any central leadership.