The Battle For Bengal- Can The BJP Win?

With a spring in its step after the recent Bihar victory, the BJP has launched a full-scale offensive to win West Bengal. How credible is its pitch and what are its chances against the formidable two-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee?

- Romita Datta

In his 40-minute victory speech at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on November 11, a day after the NDA win in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a moment to exult at the BJP’s expansion from “two seats, two rooms” to “every corner of the country”. He attributed the BJP’s rise to the collective effort of party workers, using the occasion to disparage ‘family parties’ or those that used violence as a means to counter democratic means. “The dance of death cannot work in a democracy,” he thundered. Such parties have to “read the writing on the wall”. And the writing on the wall could not be clearer. It was directed at Mamata Banerjee and her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been ruling West Bengal for the past nine and a half years. The very anti-incumbency that has led to Nitish Kumar’s diminution in Bihar haunts Mamata in West Bengal too. Moreover, she will be facing a pumped-up and reinvigorated BJP, buoyed further by the victory in Bihar, when the state goes to election in May 2021.

The stakes are high and the BJP is certainly not wasting any time. Party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya was reappointed West Bengal in-charge on November 13, while former RSS pracharak Arvind Menon and BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya were made co-in-charges. BJP president J.P. Nadda and senior party office-bearers will tour the state this week to gauge the preparedness of party workers. From now on, Shah and Nadda will be visiting the state frequently. A war room will be set up to devise a poll strategy, run social media campaigns, finalise candidates and hone the booth management strategy. BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh threw down the gauntlet to the TMC shortly after the Bihar result. ‘Ebar Bangla, parle shamla (This time Bengal, save it if you can)’. The war is on.