West Bengal Assembly Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari interacts with media persons during the state assembly Budget Session, in Kolkata.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: With Assembly elections just a year away, the BJP is set to intensify its Hindutva campaign in West Bengal, aiming for a crescendo with next month’s Ram Navami processions. Meanwhile, the party’s state heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari has accused the Trinamool Congress government of attempting to curtail the celebrations.
Adhikari, who left the TMC to join the BJP in 2020, accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government of infringing upon the ‘Sanatani’ Hindu community’s right to freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 25-28 of the Constitution of India.
He cited the ‘conditions’ imposed by police while granting the Vishwa Hindu Parishad permission for the Ram Navami procession in Shyampur, Howrah district. Adhikari alleged that despite Shyampur being home to over two lakh ‘Sanatanis’, the police capped the number of participants in the processions at 2,000-2,500.
He vowed that the BJP would have at least one crore of its leaders and supporters on the streets across West Bengal on the occasion of Ram Navami, notwithstanding the restrictions imposed by the police at the behest of the ruling TMC.
“Mamata Banerjee's policy of appeasement of a particular community and her government’s reluctance to act against jihadi elements committing atrocities against Hindus in different parts of West Bengal will ensure her party’s defeat in the next assembly elections,” Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, said at a BJP rally at Haldia, a port city in his home turf in the Purba Medinipur district of the state.
The rally was called to protest the alleged assault on some Hindu youths by the people of another community during the ‘Dol Purnima’ (Holi) celebration. The BJP workers and supporters, led by Adhikari, waved saffron flags and raised slogans like: “Hindu jadi bachte chao, dike dike ek hao”, (Hindus must unite everywhere for survival)” and “Hindu-Hindu Bhai Bhai (Hindus are siblings of Hindus”
“If 5 per cent more Hindus vote for the BJP, we will win the next assembly polls,” Adhikari said, adding: “The rallies like this one reflect the unity of the Hindus and foretell the defeat of the TMC in the next assembly elections.”
The BJP emerged as the main challenger to the TMC in West Bengal since the 2019 parliamentary elections. The saffron party secured 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 with a 40.7 per cent vote share, a leap from just two seats and a 17 per cent vote share in 2014. In the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, the BJP’s seats surged from three in 2016 to 77 in 2021, with the vote share rising from 10.16 per cent to 38.14 per cent.
The TMC won 215 seats in the Assembly in 2021 — three more than its score in 2016 — with a 48.02 per cent vote share. The BJP’s score in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections went down to 12 seats with 38.73 per cent vote share, while the TMC won 29 seats with 45.76 per cent votes.
In the wake of the BJP’s poor show in West Bengal in the parliamentary elections, Adhikari started advocating within the party that it should aggressively focus on promoting Hindutva. “Jo Hamare Sath, Hum Unke Sath (We are with those who are with us). Stop Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (We are with all to ensure the welfare of all),” he had said in July 2024.
He continued making such statements over the past few months and even went on the say recently: “Only Hindus will rule in Hindustan”.
The TMC, however, ridiculed Adhikari’s aggressive comments promoting Hindutva. “He is a tatkal Hindu,” Kunal Ghosh, a senior TMC leader, said reacting to the BJP leader’s comments, likening him to a passenger who boarded a train on a ‘tatkal’ ticket. “He once believed in secular politics. But he has now quit the TMC and joined the BJP. So, he is making such comments to gain acceptance from the old guards of the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)”.