BJP to scale down campaign in West Bengal elections

The BJP’s campaign in West Bengal Assembly elections will be a much scaled-down affair with Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani leading the charge.

Despite claims by state unit leaders that the saffron party’s campaign will be a star-studded affair, sources in the party admitted that it would be a much muted campaign than the one it held in Bihar though prominent leaders like Modi, Shah, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley will address some rallies besides chief ministers of a few BJP-ruled states.

While the Prime Minister will kick-off his campaign for the state polls from Kharagpore on March 26, party sources at the state unit said he would address about ten rallies, far less than what he managed during the Bihar polls.

Though Modi was scheduled to begin his campaign with a rally in Kolkata, it was shifted to Kharagpore  since state BJP president Dilip Ghosh is contesting from Kharagpore Sadar constituency.  Modi’s campaign in neighbouring Assam will be a stark contrast, especially since the BJP sniffs a chance to capture power in that state.

In West Bengal, though the party captured 17 per cent votes during the Lok Sabha polls, it dropped significantly to six per cent during the municipal polls.

The state unit also requested to deploy leaders conversant in Bengali, a language both Swaraj and Irani can manage, besides an apparent change in strategy post-Bihar to give more space for the local leadership, a reason why Shah will feature less.

Jaitley and railway minister Suresh Prabhu would make guest appearances to appeal to the middleclass voters in the state.  In another significant change from Bihar, the party would focus more on the achievements of the Modi government rather than highlighting the failures of Mamata Banerjee.

BJP, however, would target Mamata for her “Muslim appeasement” policies to appeal to the Hindu voters.