Bengal BJP Revamps Its Campaign Strategy Focusing On Both Left And TMC

By Tirthankar Mitra

Having earlier asked its West Bengal unit to mend its affairs, the national leadership of BJP have instructed its state unit to step up its campaign against a traditional political opponent -Left. Going by it, the state saffron camp will be henceforth focussing on the “misdeeds” of erstwhile Left Front government together with the present ruling dispensation of Trinamool Congress.

The BJP and the Left have been ideological opponents for decades. Ever since the BJP started winning elections in West Bengal in alliance with TMC in the late 1990s, animosity of the Left have increased towards it.

Of late, a spurt in the organisational strength of the Left is stated to be the reason of it being cited as the latest target of the saffron camp, sources in state BJP stated. It was none other than Union home minister, Amit Shah who drew the attention of the state leadership to the shooting up of organisational strength of the Left in the state, sources added.

Organisation man that he is, Shah had zeroed in on the consequent dip of the state saffron camp’s organisational muscle. Sections of the BJP rank and file are increasingly making their way to the Left camp have also been pointed out by him, sources stated.

Activists no longer enamoured of the saffron ideology picking their way to the Left read CPI(M) camp is not the sole reason of the BJP leadership’s ire. This erosion in the loyalty of one-time activists may lead to a switchover of a section of BJP voters to the Left is also a cause for renewed agitation program against the Left.

The state saffron camp has been spared the toil of digging out the “dirt” of the front regime. After all, the present ruling Trinamool Congress dispensation has been bandying the shortcomings of the erstwhile Left Front regime at every available opportunity.

While there is no stopping of the launch of the state BJP’s campaign against the TMC government, the reasons of state BJP’s ranks being thinned by defection to the Left lie elsewhere. It is a proactive Left which is attracting the BJP stragglers.

These saffron activists are finding solace in the Left camp as it is not shy of plunging into agitations on issues ranging from cash for teaching jobs scam to demand for dearness allowance for state government employees at a rate on par with Union government personnel to name a few . Some of the BJP activists on the run from post poll violence allegedly unleashed by a section of TMC are finding a natural haven in the company of Left activists.

In the process, the Left activists have brushed off the political ignominy of not having won a single constituency in 2021 Assembly elections. Run-ins with the men in uniform and being hauled away in not too gentle a manner from the agitation site has been taken by Left activists in their stride.

This is in sharp contrast to the functioning style of the state BJP unit. Truth to tell, it is not in keeping with its status of having emerged as the principal Opposition party in the 2021 elections.

The state BJP has propagated the achievements of its governments at the Centre and the state’s and publicized what it considered to be the failures of the TMC dispensation. It hardly needs to be said about the difference of the tone and tenor of the two campaigns.

To turn the tide, a focus on the “misdeeds” and “shortcomings” of the 34 years of Left Front regime would be the spearhead of the new BJP campaign. In the backdrop of victories of a Left-supported ISF candidate in 2021 elections and left supported Congress nominee in a recent by-election, the people’s memory need to be refreshed to stamp out a sympathy for the Left, some senior BJP leaders feel.

Meanwhile, opinion is divided in the state BJP camp about the mode of bringing back the activists gone astray and stop what may become an exodus from its ranks. It is apprehended that the campaign against the Left may backfire against the saffron camp’s earlier game plan of propagating the Left to be a spent out force with an irrelevant ideology.

A renewed focus on the misdeeds of the Left Front regime would help Left parties regain limelight, a senior BJP leader requesting anonymity said. After having agitated against TMC all these years as the principal political opponent, a spurt in stir against Left would place it in a prominent place in the Opposition perch, he further said.

Such a situation will result in a triangular electoral battle in the coming rural polls and Lok Sabha elections. A division of Opposition votes would help TMC, a state of affairs being the last thing the national BJP leadership desires.

The state BJP is in a hurry to implement this programme as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda are likely to visit the state soon. Though they would focus on the achievements in the past nine years of the BJP-led NDA government, a stock taking of the party programme against the Left in the sidelines of the tour cannot be ruled out. (IPA Service)