PM Modi in Bengal(L), Amit Shah and JP Nadda
Credit: PTI File photos
New Delhi: With the state of Bihar in its kitty, the BJP now has its sights on West Bengal next. The elections in the state, where the party is yet to win big, promise to be a high-stakes one with the BJP setting an aim of over 160 seats.
A team of the RSS has based itself in the state for the past few months, especially for electoral purposes, party sources indicated. In September, a series of meetings were held in Kolkata to coordinate between the RSS and the BJP over their strategy ahead. In the coming month, bigwigs like prime minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and home minister Amit Shah are set to hold rallies in the state.
Sources in the BJP said that, internally, the party’s focus will be to see through the Special Intensive Revision process. “In Bihar, the Election Commission found how there were 65 lakh names that were either dead or had migrated to other states. There will be a similar case in Bengal, too. We don’t know how many but we believe that the deletions will ensure that there is no bogus voting,” a leader from the BJP said.
Earlier this week, BJP president JP Nadda hosted a dinner at his residence, where home minister Amit Shah, seen as the chief strategist behind the Bihar win, congratulated as many as 45 leaders on Bihar. He also told them that the same zeal should now be seen in West Bengal too. “Be ready for Bengal now,” Shah reportedly said, and added that leaders could be sent anywhere next.
The BJP is also set to whip up a narrative that chief minister Mamata Banerjee is more generous with the state’s Muslims, who account for 30% of the state’s population, as well as raise the issue of dynasty politics, latching on to the idea that her nephew Abhishek Banerjee is likely to take over the mantle of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The saffron party has struggled to find a solid foothold in the state, which has over 70 per cent Hindus.
While in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP managed an impressive 40.2 per cent vote share and 18 Lok Sabha seats, in the 2021 assembly elections, the vote share dipped to 38.14 per cent and the BJP won 77 seats in the 294-member assembly.