West Bengal Assembly Poll 2016
3 ⁄ 294
- One reason why the BJP struggles to gain a footbold is because the party has no strategy. Neither does it have ground workers compared to the Trinamool or Congress.
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West Bengal presents a bit of a paradox as far as the BJP바카라s potential growth graph is concerned. Recent polls have registered a surge in voteshare: it has virtually zoomed from an also-ran to the number two position, replacing the CPI(M) and Congress. Yet, the ruling Trinamool Congress looms so large over Bengal that바카라while being an interesting marker of the BJP바카라s own 바카라Look East바카라 policy바카라it바카라s not expected to inflect the national calculus in any significant way.
Of its 294 assembly seats, the BJP occupies only three. And of the 42 MPs the state sends to Delhi, only two are from BJP바카라and that바카라s while riding the crest of the Modi wave in 2014. So even if that first figure looks set to improve, any conceivable growth in the second can only be marginal and of symbolic value바카라not enough to tilt the scales anywhere else.
바카라The two constituencies it won hardly counted as an indication in 2014,바카라 says political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty. 바카라Darjeeling was anyway held by the BJP for three consecutive terms, mainly due to its promise to look into the demand for a separate state. And in Asansol, an industrial town, it was more a diktat against the Trinamool바카라s lack of initiative for business enterprises.바카라
Political pundits therefore feel that if the BJP couldn바카라t make inroads into Bengal in the first flush of the Modi adulation that swept the country, falling for it now, after one round of incumbency, is less likely. Not that the BJP hasn바카라t been trying. Even for the 2016 assembly campaign, Modi and party chief Amit Shah descended on Bengal in helicopters and addressed rallies. They also fielded an array of stars and celebrities, from musician Bappi Lahiri to magician P.C. Sorcar Jr, and taunted local leaders with slogans like 바카라Bhaag Mukul Bhaag바카라 and 바카라Bhaag Mamata Bhaag바카라 (Run Mukul Run, Run Mamata Run). But in the end, the party swallowed its own words and welcomed into its fold one of the leaders바카라Mukul Roy바카라it had mocked.
바카라One reason why it바카라s difficult for the BJP to gain a foothold here is that the party doesn바카라t seem to have a strategy,바카라 Chakraborty says. 바카라It has no ground workers compared to the Trinamool or even the Congress and the Left.바카라 A Bengal BJP leader concurs: 바카라We have prominent leaders, but not enough to take on the ruling party. Our voteshare percentage shot up from six to 17 in the last Lok Sabha election, but we need people manning the grassroots.바카라
In Singur, the small town that gained prominence as the locus of the controversial Tata Nano project, a farmer says the BJP 바카라doesn바카라t exist as far as we are concerned바카라. And yet, many in that region are desperately seeking an alternative. A disgruntled farmer says he lost his land to the Nano project because of the CPI(M), while the factory is gone because of the Trinamool. 바카라The BJP hardly cares about us.바카라
It seems to come sporadically, this toying with the idea of BJP as an alternative. The first 바카라saffron wave바카라 peaked after 2014 but slumped by 2016, when the assembly elections 바카라showed that Trinamool rules, with its 213 seats바카라. At that point, the BJP trailed behind even the Congress and the Left. Later, that equation was inverted바카라but in a way that should pose existential questions to the Left and Congress, not to Mamata.
The other factor is Bengal바카라s complex and fraught social relations바카라many wonder if saffron politics can at all sustain there. 바카라The BJP is no party for Bengal바카라34 years of Communist rule has turned people secular and that does not go well with communalism,바카라 says Chakraborty. The BJP will always find it difficult to attain a critical mass in individual seats, in spite of its soaring voteshare. 바카라The Trinamool has so cleverly compacted the Muslim vote. The Hindu votes are, as opposed to that, scattered. Parties that gain the confidence of Muslims don바카라t need to worry about the remaining votes,바카라 he adds.
Mamata extends a host of sops to the community. Her rivals criticise the move as populist and exhibitionist, but Muslims are mostly convinced that Didi is their friend. 바카라She cares about us and we바카라ll vote for her,바카라 says Mehrunnissa Bibi, a Calcutta pavement dweller. 바카라We won바카라t vote BJP바카라it바카라s communal.바카라 Simple equation.
By Dola Mitra in Calcutta
