After Bihar, BJP taunts Trinamool with ‘Now Bengal’ slogan

People are fed up with TMC, wind is blowing towards BJP: Kailash Vijayvargiya

Within hours of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) edging past the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar elections, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party announced a number of victory rallies (Bijoy Michils) in the State.

On Wednesday, the party’s social media and media cell toned down the celebrations and said these events would not be called victory rallies but (Bijoy Sammilani) victory gatherings instead. Whatever name should be attributed to these events, the victory in Bihar and the party’s performance in the byelections across several States have enthused the BJP, feels political analyst and psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty.

Defections likely

“There are many in the Trinamool Congress who are testing waters and are keen to switch sides and join the BJP before the polls. In the BJP also, there are some disgruntled elements who were thinking of jumping to the Trinamool camp. But now we may only see more defections from the TMC to the BJP before the polls,” said Prof. Chakraborty, head of the Department of Political Science at Rabindra Bharati University.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, who is visiting districts of north Bengal, coined a new slogan for his party at one such victory gathering — Ebar Bangla Parle Sambhla (Now Bengal, save if you can).

 

“The BJP started from the west and is now in the east and also northeast. We are knocking at the borders of Bengal. I will say only one thing ... Ebar Bangla Parle Sambhla [Now Bengal, save if you can],” Mr. Ghosh said, taunting the Trinamool Congress. Most of the office-bearers of the BJP, party MPs and Central observers to the State also took to social media targeting and taunting the Bengal’s ruling party.

‘Mamata exposed’

“In democracy, people are supreme. The real face of Mamata Banerjee has been exposed before the people of Bengal. People are fed up with the Trinamool Congress government. The wind is blowing towards the BJP,” BJP national general secretary and observer to West Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya, said on social media.

The Trinamool Congress responded, saying that it is Mamata Banerjee who saved Bengal. “There are no police encounters in Bengal, no riots. People here live in peace. The jangalmahal [southwestern region] is peaceful and so are the hills. Dilip babu should think about what he is saying,” TMC leader and Minister Firhad Hakim said. The Trinamool leadership, including senior leaders like Saugata Roy, said they were hoping that the results would be in favour of the Mahagathbandhan in the neighbouring State and it was unfortunate that the NDA won.

Political observers like Prof. Chakraborty feel that it is not just the enthusiasm of the BJP that the TMC should be worried but it should keep an eye on the entry of parties such as Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the poll fray in the State. Speculations of the AIMIM contesting the Bengal Assembly polls have been going on for a few years now, and after the party’s performance in the Seemanchal region of Bihar such speculations have gained more ground.

“Certain districts of the State because of their demography provide an advantage to the Trinamool Congress. The Muslim population has firmly backed the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls also. Any division of Muslim votes will bring eminent doom for the Trinamool,” Prof. Chakraborty said.

While Mr. Owasi has given only hints that his party might be interested in Bengal polls, prominent political parties in the State have already started targeting him.

“Muslims got fooled by him. The BJP used him. Those votes should have gone to the secular front but went to him. All secular parties should be cautious of vote splitter Owaisi Sahab,” said State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The Congress and the Left parties are trying to project themselves as the third alternative and parties like the AIMIM does not pose a challenge only to the TMC but also to the Left and the Congress.

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