By Tirthankar Mitra
Beset by defection and dissension, West Bengal unit of BJP seems to be like a part of retreating army trudging along wearily. Recent tour of party president JP Nadda to the state aimed to be a pep up pill before the yet to be announced panchayat polls does not seem to have lifted the drooping morale.
The meetings of the BJP’s national president at Ramnagar in Midnapur (east) and Purbasthasli in Burdwan started late. It was a face saver. For though Nadda was on time, the crowds were not of commensurate of a political heavyweight like that of the BJP leader. And if one is not economical with truth, it was a thin crowd that lent it’s ears to Nadda’s speech.
Both were pointers to the organisational slackness of the state saffron camp. State BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar had organised the Purbasthasli rally, while the Ramnagar one was overseen by leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari. Contrast these with the rallies of unofficial Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee when the state was a Red bastion. People flocked to her meetings braving ruling party wrath and all that it entailed.
Nadda’s speeches were not inspiring either. If he has coined “Jai Paschimbanga” as a rallying cry to counter chief minister, Banerjee’s “Joy Bangla”, the former somewhat lacked the latter’s fizz, an essential precondition of enthusing the rank and file to go through danger and hardship for their leader and his/her cause.
One may naturally compare and contrast the buoyant BJP of 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021state Assembly elections which gave Trinamool Congress a run for it is money. Few Trinamool activists and leaders can say with a hand on his/ her heart that there were moments in the 2021 election campaign which made them think this would be the last one which their party would be participating in as a ruling dispensation.
The 2021 state Assembly polls perpetuated and ended many myths. If it laid down that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Union home minister, Amit Shah were BJP’s twin and principal vote catchers, the poll results were a pointer that the duo’s charisma fell short of target in West Bengal.
Nadda’s name certainly cannot be taken in the same breath as a campaigner as Modi and Shah. If the BJP national chief is certainly aware of it, what was his provocation of making West Bengal his first port of call after assuming office? Political analysts feel that the BJP national chief had come to test the waters. His tour also sought to convey to the party faithful and fellow travellers in the state the message they are not forgotten.
If Nadda had hands on experience of the state of his outfit in West Bengal, he left the issues of defection and intra-party dissension unaddressed. Now the issue of defection of Balurghat BJP MLA Suman Kanjilal to Trinamool and the differences within state unit over its relation with the new governor CV Anand Bose would have to be thrashed out at local level. But Nadda would have been abreast of the affairs of West Bengal unit had he gone through party reports more carefully. The indications of an outfit in the dumps were visible.
The signs of a tired political outfit seems to have been visible much earlier. It was at the two days long meeting of some of the party top brass in Durgapur where it was decided to raise the demand of conducting the rural polls with central para military forces.
The demand is unprecedented as the panchayat poll started to bring back grassroot democracy is an election policed by state security forces. But the saffron camp sought to underscore its lack of faith in the state administration by citing a clutch of stringent observations of the court against the Trinamool dispensation.
The party lacked the political muscle to take on the Trinamool in the rural polls had emerged in the two days of deliberation at Durgapur. But loath to show itself in poor light to the national leadership which had almost pinned down Trinamool in 2021 state Assembly elections, another game plan was chalked out.
It is in so many words a tactic to harass the Trinamool dispensation. The state unit would move the court seeking its direction to deploy central forces for a state level polls. Guns have been planned to be trained on the Trinamool government on issues ranging from allegations of cash for jobs, government housing fund scam defalcation, fake ration card and what not. It sought to raise a dust storm to cover up the level of unpreparedness at the booth level.
The other handicap which some of the state party leaders have raised with their national chief is an attitudinal change of the new governor. Time was his predecessor was often found closetted with state BJP leaders and on emerging shot barbs which ought to have enough fire from the ranks of the occupiers of the Opposition benches.
But Nadda is not in a position to address this grouse. Moreover seasoned politician that he is, it must have caught his eye that the state unit is on the lookout for a crutch. But the state unit has to go shopping for excuses after being in a slumber when it’s big wigs flew away in 2021 after failing to unseat Trinamool. This has been the takeaway of Nadda’s visit to West Bengal last week.
The Trinamool dispensation is faced with problems most of which are its own making. It leaves the saffron outfit in the state to clamber up and seize a political upperhand. It would have to set its house in order and target the issues it seeks to zero in on. But with only three months to go before the rural polls, it seems a rather tall order. (IPA Service)
