Bibhishan, the poor tribal farmer at whose house the Chanakya of BJP, Amit Shah, had his lunch as a part of his grand design to reach out to the tribal, just ahead of the West Bengal assembly election, did not get chance to speak to the BJP boss and request him to arrange for the treatment of his daughter.
Shah’s photo session at Bibhisan’s home was dominated by the state BJP leaders who used the occasion to identify themselves with the interest of the poor tribal. Shah with state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and BJP’s Bengal mentor Kailash Vijayvargiya, was surrounded by the local BJP leaders and their family members.
Amit Shah’s mission to West Bengal has been of immense importance for the state BJP. It is not only aimed at chalking out the poll strategy to counter the TMC and Mamata Banerjee, instead it is focused more to obliterate the chasm between the original BJP cadres and the turncoats which is more of ideological nature rather than being purely political in character.
The task before Amit Shah to give an aggressive character to the party functioning has been of utmost importance. Though a section of the leaders feel that the existing ground situation favours the party to ensure the defeat of the TMC, most of the turncoat leaders and even some old time leaders feel that the Bengali population generally nurses anti-right views and would not like to defeat the TMC.
Despite party gaining grounds in the state, most of the state leaders find it hard to identify themselves with the policies and programmes of their Delhi bosses. One of such programmes have been citizenship law. While setting his sights on 2021 Bengal polls, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya likes to give top priority to implementation of the citizenship law. This will help the party win over the trust of the Hindu refugees.
Amit Shah is so desperate to strengthen the base of the party in tribal population and the people belonging to the Matua community. The urgency of the situation could be understood from the simple fact that Shah who did not visit Bihar to campaign for the BJP or the NDA, preferred to come to Bengal. Incidentally his skipping Bihar election has given rise to many speculations in the political circle. Matuas had been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, mostly on the ground of religious persecution. With an estimated population of three million in the state, Matuas influences at least four Lok Sabha seats and 30 assembly seats in Nadia, North and South 24 Parganas districts.
Matuas have been feeling angry with the BJP leadership for not paying attention to their demand for implementing the CAA at the earliest. Only some time back the BJP MP Santanu Thakur had said that he would write to Shah requesting him to quickly implement the law in Bengal to ensure that people from the politically crucial Matua community, of which he is a part, get citizenship rights.
Shah is quite apprehensive of the mood of the Matua people in case the party delays in implementing the citizenship law. The BJP nurses the view that any delay would create more confusion and alienate the Matuas from the BJP. With TMC also having stake in the Matua vote Shah has been most careful of missing the opportunity. They had in fact voted for the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP is working on the plan to make the recent “political killings” in Bengal and the “politicisation and criminalisation” of some police officers a major electoral issue. The party is also contemplating to demand imposition of President’s Rule in the state for free and fair polls. They have already started saying that holding of free and fair election was impossible without the imposition of President’s Rule and asserted that Election Commission needs to ensure people can exercise their rights without hassle.
A fortnight back the Governor of West Bengal, Dhankar during his visit to Delhi had met with Amit Shah and both of them collectively agreed to chalk out a detail programme as to how to make law and order a major issue in the ensuing elections. Meanwhile the BJP leadership is worried at the development in the Darjeeling hills. Though the BJP leaders publically do not accept that GJM supremo Bimal Gurung’s volte-face and switchover to the TMC camp would have adverse impact on the electoral prospect of the party, they are desperate to win over the junior leaders of the GJM. Gurung was in hiding for the last three years, but resurfaced in Kolkata on October 21 and pledged support to the TMC, after quitting the NDA.
With Amit Shah taking keen interest in the West Bengal elections, apprehensions are being expressed in the political circle that a new phase of political violence may erupt in the state. This would be the new electoral agenda for the BJP. (IPA Service)