As scheduled, Mr. Modi visited North and South Bengal areas, not forgetting to visit Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhowanipore Assembly constituency. He shook hands with common people, met intellectuals, briefed the press and held a grueling meeting with local party leaders and workers.
His style of attack was reminiscent of Mr. Modi’s . While an angry Mamata Banerjee screamed, raved and ranted non-stop abuse at the BJP and its leaders, Shah worked with a scalpel, in reply to her bludgeon. He poured salt into the TMC’s wounds on the issues of corruption and Muslim appeasement. Whenever he raised these issues, the crowds responded with lusty cheers.
With the level of the political debate descending to the level of a rustic ‘nautanki, no wonder Left leaders like Dr Suryakanta Mishra and Mohammad Salim (both CPI-M) and liberal intellectuals were reduced to much head shaking and tongue-clicking. ‘Never had the state’s politics been so vitiated by such religious polarization,’ was their common lament. Congress leaders Abdul Mannan and Adhir Choudhury joined them.
At one level, the eviscerating hostility that exists between the BJP and the TMC, former alliance partners, is surprising. Despite its status as a ‘national’ party , the TMC was and is a one- state party. ‘Even its tag as a regional party is misleading
There can be no comparison with the BJP which currently rules many States and seeks to win more. But the challenge the BJP faces vis-à-vis the TMC in Bengal is more difficult than what confronted it in Uttar Pradesh in the shape of the Samajwadi or the Bahujan Samaj party , or the Aam Admi Party in Delhi and elsewhere, for that matter.
Unlike the other state-based parties, the TMC has managed to build a sizable support base over the last five/six years, by implementing a slew of welfare, almost charitable, ‘freeby’ populist measures. These include notionally ‘free medical treatment ‘ for people in Government-run hospitals, cycles for boys and girls, scholarships for almost every student from the minority community , subsidised rice at Rs 2 a kilo and the like.
“The state economy is run more along the lines of a dole programme financed by the taxpayers’ money,’ says one economist. The state’s debt to the centre has risen from Rs 189,000 crore in 2011 to nearly Rs 3,40,000 crore at present, despite a marginal increase in its revenue collection.
But politically, it pays the ruling TMC a big dividend. Apart from ensuring almost total support from 27% of the state’s Muslim population, tribals and scheduled caste communities too vote en masse for the ruling party in elections, although there are increasing signs of a division of late. An election analyst points out, ‘The TMC has managed to create a sizable vote base for itself over the years that its opponents will find it hard to crack.’
What can the BJP put up against such a formidably entrenched party by way of a challenge?
Surprisingly the BJP’s armoury is not exactly bare. It is common knowledge that the TMC remains considerably discredited on the Sarada and Rose Valley chit fund scams, and the Narada sting operation. In the first, top TMC Ministers, MLAs, and MPs have been charged with active involvement, while probing Rose Valley matters, the Central bureau of Investigation (CBI) has just put up a charge sheet. It has named TMC MP Sudip Banerjee and MP Tapas Paul and brought serious charges of corruption against then.
As for the Narada scam, Shah pointedly told a newsmen, replying to a question, ’There is no so-called conspiracy in the sting operation. The whole world has seen 12/13 TMC leaders and Ministers taking bribes, their words and actions recorded. The recordings have not been proved as fake. Instead of me, why don’t you ask the TMC leaders if they have any answer ‘
Significantly, neither Ms Banerjee nor her Finance Minister Amit Mitra in their rebuttal of BJP’s claims, spoke a single word about any of these scams and the involvement of over a score of TMC leaders!
As the noose tightens around many TMC leaders during the ongoing CBI probe into these instances of corruption, Ms Banerjee would find it harder than ever to claim that she heads a relatively clean, honest political party that seeks to provide a fair administration in Bengal, not self aggrandizement for itself !
The BJP”s vote share has steadily increased to the point where it has now come second in the Cooch-Behar and Tamluk Lok sabha bypoll, as well as at Contai (South) Assembly seat. In some cases, the security deposits of both the Congress and the Left parties have been forfeited. There has been a clear consolidation of opposition votes in favour of the BJP.
Former workers of the Congress and the LF parties have also flocked to the BJP in order to gain minimal physical protection from aggressive mobs of TMC supporters who enjoy the tacit backing of the politicised state police authorities. The same goes for Congress and Left supporters who too have faced harassment and heckling in their places of work by their TMC opponents in both Government and private offices and educational institutions.
The non-Bengali speaking population from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is particularly happy over the emergence of the BJP as a factor. It is largely this segment of people that has been celebrating the Ram Navami, the Ganesh Puja, the Chhat puja and other Hindu rites and rituals in ever larger numbers during the TMC rule.
Add to these the sullen ranks of Hindu citizens, who still account for nearly 70% of the population, many of whom have become more vocal then before over certain steps taken by the TMC. The special allowance announced by the government for Imams of Masjids, the subsidy for hajj, the ban on Durga puja immersion processions and on the Saraswati puja at places, not to mention the one-sided violence reported from Dhulagarhi, Canning, Deganga, Malda and Murshidabad …. the BJP will certainly garner many votes from this section of aggrieved people.
What seems certain at this stage is that the BJP will emerge as the second largest party in major elections in Bengal, if present trends continue. The prospects do not seem bright for the Left parties or the Congress, on the basis of present evidence. The TMC too certainly faces very tough times ahead. (IPA Service)