News Analysis India

Tag: Bengal Assembly elections

  • Bengal gears up for neck-to-neck fight between TMC and BJP

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: As West Bengal is set for an eight-phase poll schedule, the ruling TMC is gearing up for a neck-to-neck fight with the BJP which not only made deep inroads into the state but also emerged as her arch-rival since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

    Political observers opined that the upcoming poll battle will be Mamata’s fight for survival as the saffron camp increased its stake in Bengal’s electoral arena significantly by bagging around 40% vote share, only 3% behind the ruling party. Though the Left Front and Congress formed an alliance, the elections are considered as an eyeball-to-eyeball contact between the TMC and the saffron camp.

    “It doesn’t matter in how many phases the elections will be held. We are all set to participate in the game and win it,” said Mamata, shortly after the election schedule was announced.

    But the lieutenants of the TMC supremo don’t think it will be a cakewalk for TMC. “The BJP’s vote share was 10.16% in the 2016 Assembly elections and it shot up to 40.7% in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which triggered a massive jolt to our party. It will be a tooth and nail battle,” said a senior TMC leader. In the 2011 Assembly elections, BJP’s vote share was 4.06%.

    ALSO READ | Bengal poll schedule fixed to please Modi and Shah, alleges Mamata

    Political analysts said it will be a prestigious fight for Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who repeatedly claimed to bag more than 200 seats and a battle for Mamata’s survival. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP secured the lead in 121 Assembly constituencies out of 294.

    “Posing a threat to TMC’s dominance and Mamata’s charisma over a period of 10 years in Bengal politics in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP surfaced as a strong contender against the ruling party. This election is a litmus test for the saffron camp and the state is likely to witness a tough electoral contest. Since there was a largescale exodus from the TMC to the BJP in the recent past, Mamata’s party might collapse with cascading effect if she fails to retain Bengal,” said Bishnupriya Dutta Gupta, a political scientist.   

    BJP’s state vice-president Jayprakash Majumdar, however, ruled out the possibility of the tough contest with the TMC. “The electorates of Bengal have made their mind. Mamata Banerjee’s party has already lost the battle. She is still in power because of the constitutional process. We will whitewash her party in the upcoming Assembly elections.”

  • Bengal polls: Mamata likens Modi, Shah to grotesque Ravan, overweight monster

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Barely 24 hours after the CBI grilled the wife of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee in connection with a coal pilferage case, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    While addressing a rally at Hooghly’s Dunlop ground, the same venue from where the PM lashed out at the TMC government two days ago, the CM compared Modi with grotesque and Ravan and Shah with an overweight potbelly man and a monster.

    “I don’t want to malign the post of the Prime Minister. But two men from Delhi are visiting Bengal and misleading people in Bengal. One is Hodolkutkut (an overweight potbelly man) and the other is kimbhutkimakar (grotesque),” said Mamata Banerjee.

    A few days ago, Mamata termed Shah as nadusnudus (an overweight child).

    Mamata Banerjee linked CBI’s interrogation of Abhishek’s wife Rujira to BJP’s conspiracy to defame Bengal’s women and daughters. “She (Rujira) is a 22-year-old young lady who has no involvement in the case. Putting the daughter-in-law of a family under the scanner of a law enforcing agency is an insult of Bengal’s women.

    ALSO READ | Mamata writes to PM, requests him to help Bengal get vaccines for people before state assembly polls

    “You are using the central agency to defame the women and daughters of Bengal. You (Modi and Shah) are raising a voice against coal smuggling, but you are roaming with coal smugglers and staying in a hotel in Burdwan owned by a coal mafia. I know everything but not dropping his name,” she hit back.

    A team of eight CBI sleuths interrogated Rujira at her south Kolkata residence for one-and-a-half-hour on Tuesday. The CBI officials entered the apartment minutes after Mamata Banerjee paid an unscheduled visit there.        

    She said the Centre is privatising the government agencies and selling out PSUs. “Two persons are running the country. One is Ravan and another is a danav (monster).”   

    Retaliating Modi’s attack on the issue of lack of industrialisation in Bengal, Mamata used the venue, the ground of the closed Dunlop factory, as her political tool. “In 2016, we wrote letters to the Centre expressing the state government’s interest to take over the Dunlop and Jessop factories. But till date, there is no response from your end. The central government is responsible for the plight of the workers of the two factories. We are giving Dunlop workers a monthly grant. What have you done for them? Nothing,” she said.

    On Modi’s labelling of the TMC as an outfit of extortionists, the CM said, “If the poor take Rs 5, they are tolabaj (extortionist). And your party is draining out thousands of crores. Have you waived farmers’ loan? No. But, you allowed the defaulters of thousands of crores of bank loans to go scot-free.”

  • Bengal polls: BJP seeks state govt nod to hold rath yatras

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The BJP’s West Bengal chapter has sought permission from home secretary HK Dwivedi for five rath yatras from five points under the banner of ‘Parivartan Yatra’. The event will start from February 6 and continue till February 9.

    The application seeking permission was accepted by the Nabanna, the state secretariat, but the nod is yet to be given.

    Sources in the BJP said party heavyweights including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda are likely to participate in the events.

    The raths (chariot) will travel across districts in north and south Bengal. “We have already kicked off campaigns aiming at the upcoming Assembly elections in Bengal. The five yatras will be a mega event to show our strength,” said a BJP leader.

    The first event will start from Nabadwip in Nadia district on February 6 and end at Barrackpore, North 24 Parganas. “On the inaugural day of our ‘Parivartan Yatra’, Naddaji is likely to be present,” said the leader.

    On February 8, two roadshows will be held — from Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas and Cooch Behar town in north Bengal. The Kakdwip event will end in Kolkata while the other at Malda. The next day, BJP supporters will start from Jhargram in Junglemahal and Tarapith in Birbhum. The Jhargram yatra will end in Howrah and the other in Purulia town.

    ” The chariots will travel through 23 districts across the state. During the membership drive started last year, more than 1 crore registered themselves. Besides, thousands of workers defected from other political parties. The strength of the five yatras will deliver a message to the people of Bengal that BJP is the only alternative political force that can overthrow the ruling Trinamool Congress and bring parivartan (change) in Bengal,” said another BJP leader.   

    In a letter to the Home Secretary Pratap Banerjee, the state vice president of the BJP wrote: “The broader purpose of the communication is to appraise you about the gamut of the programme so that the administration may prepare the modalities of relevant support system for its peaceful conduct throughout the state.” 

  • Bengal polls: Left Front, Congress finalise seat-sharing deal for 193 of 294 constituencies

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: In the second round of discussion on seat-sharing for the Bengal Assembly polls, the Left Front (LF) and Congress have arrived at a consensus on sharing of 193 of 294 seats.

    In the first meeting held in January, both the parties had agreed to field candidates in the 77 seats where either of the two sides had won in the 2016 Assembly elections.

    “We have come to a unanimous conclusion in another 116 seats. While we will field candidates in 68 seats, the Congress will do in 48,” said Left Front chairman Biman Bose. “So, in total 193 seats, we will contest in 101 and Congress 92.”

    Bose said the deal to share the remaining 101 Assembly seats will be finalised in the first week of February.

    The Congress had earlier said that it would stick to their demand of 130 seats. In the first meeting, Congress had demanded that it should be allowed to contest in that many seats.

  • Bengal polls: TMC booth leader beaten to death in East Burdwan district

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: A booth president of Trinamool Congress was beaten to death allegedly by BJP workers in East Burdwan district of poll-bound West Bengal.

    The victim was identified as Sanjib Ghosh of the Mangalkot area.

    When the victim’s family members and TMC leaders held the BJP supporters responsible, the saffron party refuted the allegation claiming the incident was a fallout of the ruling party’s infighting.

    Sagar Ghosh, the father of the deceased, lodged an FIR mentioning the names of 26 BJP workers in the area. Police said four accused named in the FIR were arrested while the hunt is on to track down the rest.

    Sagar’s mother Ashalata said BJP workers took her son’s life. “Before Sanjit died, he told me that he was waylaid near a canal. The attackers were hiding on the bank of the canal. He was beaten up mercilessly with sticks,” she alleged.

    Krishna Ghosh, the local leader of the BJP, said his party was in no way involved in the incident. “Sanjib had criminal antecedents and he developed enmity in his own party. The incident is a result of TMC’s intra-party feud,” he said.

  • Bengal polls: Mamata schedules emergency meeting on January 29 as Shah set to begin state visit

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has convened an emergency meeting with party MPs, MLAs and core committee members on January 29, the day Union Home minister will land in Kolkata for a two-day visit. 

    The CM’s meeting is politically significant amid speculations that more TMC legislators, including at least one former minister of her cabinet, might jump the ship to BJP in presence of Shah in a rally in Howrah district on January 31.

    Sources in the TMC said the CM took a strong stance about the rebellious party functionaries who are expressing their discontent publicly. “The party already expelled Baishali Dalmiya, the MLA from Bally in Howrah, and served a show-cause notice to Hooghly’s Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghoshal for issuing anti-party statements. The CM is likely to deliver a message to the MLAs and other elected representatives in the backdrop of the recent exodus,” said a senior leader of the ruling party.

    Six TMC MLAs, including Suvendu Adhikari, one sitting MP, and 45 other district-level functionaries had joined the BJP at a rally in West Midnapore in presence of Shah in December. The functionaries of BJP’s Bengal chapter are claiming that Bengal is going to witness another round of large-scale defection from the TMC to the BJP in presence of the Union Home Minister in a rally scheduled to be held at Dumurjala stadium in Howrah.

    It is apparent that the TMC supremo has adopted a tough stance to deal with the party’s disgruntled leaders who are hinting at shifting sides. At a recent rally in Hooghly, the CM made it clear that the party’s door would remain shut for the turncoats if they wanted to come back.

    Shah’s two-day Bengal visit starting from January 30 has become the most discussed issue in the circuit of Bengal’s politics as the Matuas, the Dalit followers of a Hindu religious sect comprising refugees from Bangladesh, are expecting a deadline on the implementation of the contentious CAA from the Union Home minister. On January 30, Shah is scheduled to address a rally in Thakurnagar, Bongaon, where the headquarters of Matua Mahasangha is located.

    Riding the support of the Matuas and Hindu refugees, the BJP had made deep inroads in Bengal’s Dalit-dominated pockets by promising them citizenship by implementing the CAA in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

    Matuas are a deciding factor in at least 35 Assembly constituencies and other Dalit communities dominate in 20 seats in the state. Last month, Shantanu Thakur, the saffron camp’s Bongaon MP and a representative of Matuas, had said his community wanted Shah to announce the deadline of implementing the CAA.

    Measuring the discontent among the Matuas and Dalits, Mamata Banerjee has already addressed two rallies in Bongaon and Ranaghat, another Hindu refugee dominated pocket, and hit out at the BJP on the citizenship issue.

  • Bengal assembly elections 2021: Amit Shah, JP Nadda to lead BJP’s campaign in state

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda will carry out a joint campaign of the saffron outfit in West Bengal before the Assembly elections. The two will lead five ‘rath yatras’ across the state to boost the party’s chances in a desperate battle against Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.Still to project a face for the chief minister’s position, the two heavyweights will also welcome those jumping ship from TMC. 

    Since the BJP has not said yet who would be the party’s choice for the top spot in the state cabinet if they form the government, observers feel they will build the campaign in such a way that the focus stays on the star campaigners for the moment.

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    While Shah is likely to lead three rath yatras, Nadda will head two, sources said. They added that route details are being chalked out and the first of the yatras will be flagged off in a few days. 

    Like in the Bihar assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to join the campaigning in the last leg in the role of a finisher to help the party consolidate its support base and woo the fence-sitters.Shah, a former BJP chief himself, had missed much of the campaigning in Bihar. But he will be fully in action in West Bengal, with party leaders stressing that the political turf over there suits him better, like in Uttar Pradesh. 

    While the West Bengal unit of the BJP is led by Dilip Ghosh, the party appears not too keen on having him as a leading campaigner due to his limited mass appeal. The BJP will be banking on sub-regional satraps such as Suvendhu Adhikari to help Shah-Nadda attract crowds and send out a message to the voters that the saffron outfit can dislodge Mamata’s government.

    Ruled by the Left for over 30 years and for a decade by TMC, West Bengal is headed for a battle between BJP and TMC this time. The last few weeks have seen important members of the TMC switching over to BJP and party leaders are confident that this number will increase in the coming days.