Known to enthuse the party rank and file to a higher energitic pitch before elections, Union home minister Amit Shah’s words seemed to lack its usual fervour when he toured West Bengal recently. Indeed his public address was a departure from his earlier speeches when he set a target for the poll nominees of BJP.
One has to merely refresh ones memory to recall Shah’s ambitious call “Is baar doso paar”( We will cross the mark of 200 this time) as he predicted a saffron government formation in West Bengal which will have a brute majority of 200-odd legislators. As if heading the sales department of a firm, he had set this target.
Little idea did the de facto numero two in BJP had that the product he sought to sell had few takers in West Bengal. An altogether different story unfolded post declaration of his 2021 Assembly poll forecast – his prediction turned out to be wide off the mark.
To an unbiased political observer the BJP had a pyrrhic victory in 2021 Assembly polls. If it succeeded in securing the maximum number of seats in its career, the figure was well below 200, the target set by Shah
Defections to Trinamool Congress further reduced the BJP’s tally of seats in the state Assembly. In this backdrop, it was small consolation that it emerged as the principal Opposition party with no MLAs from either Congress or Left Front.
State BJP’s electoral fortunes has been going downhill ever since. Trinamool trounced it in s succession of civic polls including that of key Kolkata Municipal Corporation, considered last but one step to forming the state government.
By-election results have not been encouraging for West Bengal. Not a single BJP nominee has emerged victorious so far in the by-polls.
One cannot be accused of unreasonable curiosity if he/she seeks to know whether poll debacle is the only reason behind Shah not going full throttle during his West Bengal trip recently. Seasoned political leader that he is it took him little time to realise that his party is caught on a sticky pitch in this state.
The organisational affairs of the saffron camp is in a shambles. After state unit is headless post it’s chief and Balurghat MP Sukanta Majumdar’s induction in the Union Cabinet.
The intra-party spats have come out in the open. With former state unit chief Dilip Ghosh airing his differences with both Majumdar and leader of the Opposition Subhendu Adhikari, the state unit of the BJP does not answer to the description of “a party with a difference”.
Shah’s address did not dishearten the saffron rank and file even if he did not set a target.Putung up a brave face a senior BJP leader pointed out that the Union home minister has predicted come 2026, a saffron dispensation will be at the helm of affairs in West Bengal.
This has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Even some of the diehard TMC activists would admit that death of a woman doctor on duty at RG Kar hospital in Kolkata and the statewide scam for school teachers and non-teaching staff has provided the entire Opposition with potent campaign issues.
But Shah is only too aware that the state BJP leadership could not utilise both the issues. It missed a sitter to use a football parlance.
It was the activists of the Left Front constituents who were in the front ranks of both the agitations. But these parties have had their support base “hijacked’ by BJP.
Thus it boils down to situation the saffron camp failed to utilise incidents which would have placed the Mamata Banerjee led TMC government in the wrong foot. The state BJP is back to a square one.
On the other hand, the political outfits that had the ruling dispensation of the state with its back to the wall have little acceptability with the electorate. It is an ironical situation.
To make matters worse, the state BJP leadership has failed to propagate the success of Operation Sindoor in a manner it’s counterparts have done in other states. The state BJP’s shortcomings will lead to s situation nationalistic spiel won’t cut much ice in West Bengal during poll campaign next year. .
More issues will emerge as the Assembly election draws nearer. Given its track record, such issues are unlikely to be drawn up to a pitch which would induce the voters to switch their support from TMC to BJP.
And Shah had all this and more in a nutshell beforehand. Hence no setting of target but an announcement of victory in 2026 Assembly polls though he is well aware that his party lacks the wherwithal to achieve it.
