TMC will continue to dominate if BJP does not have a proper agenda
Five months can be a long time in politics, as the West Bengal case shows. Earlier this year, in the run-up to the assembly elections, the entire Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, campaigned across the state in hopes of forming a government. Five months later, after suffering a major defeat during those elections, the BJP seems to have lost interest in the state. It has also suffered humiliating losses September by-elections and October, which has raised questions over the party’s claims of strong opposition from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state.
very clear
By-election held on 30 October TMC made a clean sweep by winning all the four seats. Dinhata, Shantipur, Khardaha and Gosaba. It snatched Dinhata and Shantipur seats from the BJP, which had won these seats in May. The TMC’s margin of victory has also been huge: it won the Dinhata assembly seat in North Bengal by a margin of 1.64 lakh votes and Gosaba in South Bengal by 1.43 lakh votes. BJP candidates lost their deposits in three out of four seats as they failed to win a sixth of the valid votes. The party managed to garner only 14.5% votes as compared to 38% votes polled in the assembly elections held five months ago.
In September, the BJP also lost bypolls to three assembly seats, including Bhabnipur, from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee contested and won. After two rounds of bypolls, the strength of TMC MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly has increased from 213 to 217 in the 294-member House.
The TMC has not only won all the seven seats by-polls, but it has also been able to attract BJP leaders. BJP defectors include former Union minister Babul Supriyo and leaders like Mukul Roy And Rajiv Banerjee. TMC’s political dominance in Bengal can only be compared with the 34-year dominance of the Left Front, which ended in 2011.
BJP’s brand of politics
The by-election shows the rejection of the BJP’s brand of politics in West Bengal. Before the by-election held on 30 October, BJP raised the issue of recent communal violence in Bangladesh It is expected that this will help the party in getting electoral dividend. Efforts to polarize voters in the 2021 assembly elections did not work for the BJP and did not work for the party in the bypolls either. In a state with a minority population of 27.01% (2011 census), the BJP will need to focus on a more constructive approach. TMC government’s increased focus on cash transfer schemes, last ‘Laxmir Bhandari‘, is working well for the party. The high prices of petrol, diesel and LPG added to the BJP’s woes, which the TMC leadership never misses an opportunity to point out.
Before the by-elections, the BJP leadership failed to organize a major political campaign in the state. Despite the fact that the party’s supporters were on the receiving end of post-poll violence, and the Calcutta High Court directed an investigation by central agencies, the BJP failed to enthuse its supporters on the issue. Other than this, party infighting Making matters worse. Some BJP stalwarts have blamed a section of the central leadership for the disgrace of the party in the assembly elections.
In the next few months, hundreds of municipal bodies, including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, will go to the polls. The opposition has been demanding elections in these municipalities and municipal corporations for the past few years. Unless the BJP comes up with another agenda to counter TMC’s brand of politics, the political scene in West Bengal will continue to be dominated by the regional party.
Shivsahaya.s@thehindu.co.in
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