Attack on JP Nadda may give BJP an edge in West Bengal ahead of 2021 Assembly polls

The attack on BJP president JP Nadda allegedly by Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadres during his visit to West Bengal may provide the saffron party with an advantage over the TMC ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

The incident has raised a question mark over the law and order situation in Bengal and on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claims of good governance and development which she plans major poll planks for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Sensing an opportunity to corner the TMC rule, BJP has swung into action to create administrative and political pressure. It has repeatedly alleged that lawlessness was prevailing in Bengal.

Read | BJP workers attacking each other to malign TMC: CM Mamata Banerjee

Speaking to DH, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “TMC deliberately set up a dais on the side of the road where JP Nadda’s convoy would pass. I wrote to the concerned Superintendent of Police that earlier also there were lapses in the security for the BJP president and that this time, required adequate arrangements. Utter lawlessness is prevailing in Bengal.”

The steps were taken by the Centre, such as summoning the state’s Chief Secretary Alapon Bandyopadhyay and Director General of Police (DG) Virendra, which indicated attempts of creating an administrative pressure over the TMC government over the law and order issue.

TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee in a letter to the Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla stated, “You are proceeding with a political vendetta and motive... You are indirectly trying to impose emergency in the state of West Bengal.”

Also Read | Attack on Nadda 'sponsored violence'; Bengal has descended into era of tyranny under TMC rule: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s upcoming visit to Bengal, within days of the attack on Nadda, signals that BJP will deploy its top leaders to gain political mileage from the incident. BJP sources said that Shah will raise the issue to corner the TMC ahead of the 2021 polls.

“The results of the social welfare schemes launched by the state government will get nullified if such law and order situation keeps occurring in Bengal. Such incidents will only increase the polarisation which has been happening in the state since the last Lok Sabha elections,” political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay told DH.