With all the highs and lows of Bhartiya Janata Party’s progress in Bengal, they have only two MPs in the West Bengal currently, but the Janata party aims to have 22 of them after the Lok Sabha elections.
In order to achieve this aim, PM Narendra Modi held a rally at Kolkata’s historical Brigade Maidan on April 3, 2019. The rally witnessed a huge crowd which was as good as the footfall of public rallies held by former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.
But what does this crowd indicate? Did people attend it to hear what Modiji had to say or was it just to analyse his words? With no assurity on this, the progress of BJP in Bengal still remains a question.
However, many people were seen stepping in front of TV cameras screaming ‘Jai Shree Ram’ during the rally. There were random screaming on ‘Jab Tak Sooraj Chaand Rahega, Modi Amar Rahega,’ as well.
In an interview with the FirstPost, Anirban Ganguly, director of the New Delhi based think tank Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, commented on Modiji’s Kolkata rally, he said, “Modi was certainly a major attraction because of which Brigade Maidan saw such a huge gathering. But it’s also an expression of the frustration of the people of Bengal against the oppressive politics of Mamata Banerjee, the existing extortion racket and syndicate and against the ‘pishi-bhaipo’ (aunt-nephew) government that does not believe in our Constitutional framework.”
Modiji also made a quick reference to the aunt-nephew duo referring Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, indirectly appealing to end dynastic politics of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state of Bengal.
