Headlines
BJP losing its appeal in West Bengal? (News Analysis)
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By Anurag DeyKolkata, June 29
Intense factionalism, a
perceived tilt towards the Trinamool Congress and a flop show in civic
polls threaten to confine the BJP to its traditional role of a fringe
player in West Bengal - a far cry from the promise it held out after the
Lok Sabha election.
Buoyed by its 2014 Lok Sabha performance
when it nearly trebled its vote share to 16.8 percent from 6 percent in
2009, the BJP had been talking big about winning next year's assembly
polls in Bengal.
The BJP scored another success in September when
its candidate Shamik Bhattacharya became only the second BJP legislator
in the state - 15 years after Badal Bhattacharya entered the assembly
by winning the Basirhat (South) seat in a by-election.
BJP president Amit Shah and other leaders had since been claiming that the countdown for Trinamool's departure had begun.
Amid
a clamour to project it as the only viable alternative to the
Trinamool, the BJP got a rude jolt in the municipal polls when it won
just four percent of the state's 2,090 wards, failing to take control of
even a single municipality out of 91. It won only seven of the 144
wards in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
The BJP garnered
nearly 25 percent of votes in Kolkata and took clear leads in 23
assembly segments, including Mamata Banerjee's constituency Bhowanipore,
in the Lok Sabha polls.
Even as BJP leaders blamed the rout in
the civic polls to rigging and violence by the Trinamool, political
analysts say the BJP seems to have squandered the opportunity it got to
emerge as a major force in the state.
Political commentator
Biswanath Chakraborty attributed the BJP's diluted stand on the Saradha
scam as one major reason for its dipping appeal.
"It was the
Saradha issue that led to the BJP emerging as an alternative. It is the
same scam which has played a lead role in the BJP losing its
significance as well," Chakraborty, a political science professor of
Rabindra Bharati University, told IANS.
"BJP's USP has been its anti-Trinamool stand. But its decision to hobnob with the Trinamool has dented its image," he added.
While
the Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into the Saradha scam led
to the arrest or interrogation of many Trinamool leaders and MPs, of
late very little is heard about the progress of the case from the
central agency, fuelling speculation about a "deal" between the BJP and
the Trinamool.
The BJP's strategy of only harping on Trinamool's failings has backfired, analysts say.
"Unlike
Narendra Modi who came to power on the twin planks of development and
good governance, the state BJP has failed to harp on any constructive
issue. Relentlessly attacking Mamata could be productive only in the
short run," insisted Chakraborty.
Political analyst Anil Kumar
Jana said the BJP central leaders' silence on the Saradha scam, about
which it was so vocal earlier, reflected their keenness to win over
Mamata Banerjee to pass key bills in parliament.
"Moreover, the
BJP realises that unless its base reaches the rural belt, it can never
be in the reckoning in Bengal. So it is hoping to ride on a tacit
understanding with the Trinamool until it has the requisite
organisational might," Jana told IANS.
West Bengal's ruling party
apparently returned the favour by helping the BJP-led NDA pass a number
of bills in the Rajya Sabha apart from maintaining a stoic silence when
the opposition has been going hammer and tongs over External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj's alleged links with former IPL chief Lalit Modi.
In
addition, the run up to the municipal election brought out factional
feuds in the state BJP into the open as leaders dissatisfied with the
selection of candidates created a ruckus outside the state headquarters.
The
bickering continued after the polls, with new entrant, actress Rupa
Ganguly, attacking central Minister Babul Supriyo for praising the chief
minister at a time her party workers were under attack by the
Trinamool.
The BJP leadership rubbished such allegations.
"The
BJP government has been endeavouring to strengthen the federal
structure. How can anyone expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the
home minister to rake up political issues during official visits?"
argued BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh.
Singh told IANS that the
CBI would soon bring the probe into the Saradha scam "to a logical
conclusion ensuring punishment of the guilty".