JOIN USIn West Bengal, the political battle for LS ’24, has already begun
Mithun Chakraborty, actor-turned-politician with an allegiance to the BJP, on Friday, said that if he’s made the chief minister of West Bengal, the state will not remain the same. Speaking in the context of an alleged “corrupted system”, he implied that he would eliminate corruption from the state.
“Corruption” is among the top issues the BJP in Bengal intends to highlight before the voters, besides talking about the Centre’s welfare schemes, and major projects that came Bengal’s way in the last many years.
The issues of citizenship rights, infiltration, and the alleged “appeasement of minorities” by the ruling Trinamool Congress, for now, seemingly, have moved down in the list of political concerns.
On the other hand, for months now, the Trinamool has kept the freeze on central funds to Bengal for welfare schemes as a prominent issue in its public programmes.
The party has also spoken about the numerous schemes the state administration carries out for all sections of the society. The Trinamool talks of plurality, claiming that it’s against “divisive” politics.
While the Lok Sabha elections are still almost a year away from now, in Bengal, the parties have already initiated action for a mega political battle ahead. In the short run, it’s the rural polls the parties have in sight.
Being occasionally joined by the party chief, the Trinamool’s ongoing two-month-long outreach programme is being spearheaded by party’s MP Abhishek Banerjee. Banerjee had begun his “Jono Sanjog Yatra” on April 25 in north Bengal, and has reached southern Bengal, having covered 15 districts so far.
Banerjee has been speaking about the blocking of funds, and has reiterated the alleged misuse of investigation agencies by the BJP at the Centre. “These political parties think that they can intimidate me by using central agencies like ED and CBI. In a democracy, the last word is always said by the people,” Banerjee said after concluding a 20-km walk to reach Nandigram on Thursday night.
While the Trinamool leadership has hit the ground first, the BJP, in June, hopes to leave no stone unturned with a major month-long campaign. On its guest list, besides many top-rung leaders, are PM Modi, JP Nadda, and Amit Shah who are expected to be present at three major programmes.
The BJP will not be content with the numerous public programmes. To add further fuel, it’s going to have 1,000 ‘microlevel’ sabhas, BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said, earlier this week. “The issue of corruption will be an important issue. We are also going to take to the people the works that the Centre has carried out,” a senior BJP leader said.