The BJP’s West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar has flagged the issue of infiltration and said his party will contest the upcoming general election in the state on the planks of “large-scale corruption” of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and the performance of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“Infiltration is the biggest challenge faced by Bengal and it is a question of how the state can be saved,” Majumdar told ET in an exclusive interview. “The law and order situation is precarious in West Bengal, especially in some parts like the border area of Sandeshkhali. Demography in these bordering regions has completely changed over the years since independence. If we compare the census in 1947 and the last census in 2011, there is a huge change in the demography due to infiltration.”
Poll Planks”We will fight the Lok Sabha polls on two issues – large-scale corruption of Trinamool Congress and PM Narendra Modi’s performance in the last few years and Modi’s developmental model,” Majumdar said.
Talking about candidate selection for the upcoming polls, he said, “We will consider certain factors during candidate selection for Lok Sabha polls – whether they are associated with the party’s work actively, ideological background and clean image. These three factors will be considered with utmost importance during candidate selection.”
While inducting new workers into the party, the BJP aims to focus on fresh faces with a clean image, he said. “Fresh faces will be taken into the party. We will not accept rotten potatoes. We will rather focus on fresh faces and karyakartas (workers) instead of leaders,” he said.The BJP has worked hard to build an organisational base in the state in the past few years, Majumdar said. “We have built a strong organisational structure and the number of people in the booths is far higher than that in 2019. We have become stronger and booths have also been strengthened. We will be able to fulfil the target set by Amit Shah for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” he said.Shah has fixed a target of winning 35 out of the 42 seats in the state in the Lok Sabha polls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had won 18 seats, up from two seats in 2014.
Rohingyas
“There is a presence of Rohingyas in Sandeshkhali area. People like Shahjahan Sheikh have given place in the area to the Rohingyas in and around the fisheries and they are used by the Trinamool Congress politically. The Trinamool Congress government in Bengal is aware of it but they are silent on the matter. It is an open secret,” Majumdar said, adding that large tracts of areas where fisheries are run in Sandeshkhali and adjacent areas are a haven of illegal and anti-social activities.
Talking about the central government’s intervention on AITC leader Shahjahan Sheikh, Majumdar said, “It should be an administrative decision as to what kind of central intervention is required to control these kind of incidents. The Centre should intervene in the matter depending on the law of the land.”
Majumdar had written a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah last Friday, seeking intervention of the Centre and National Investigation Agency probe into the attack on Enforcement Directorate officials who went to raid Sheikh’s residence in connection with alleged Public Distribution System case. The officials were attacked and suffered serious injuries during the attack. “It is not only merely an attack on the Enforcement Directorate but an attack on the Constitution of India and sovereignty of the country,” said Majumdar.