Kolkata: The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal is not just the wave of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but also due to the gradual growth of ‘false promises’ and ‘cut money’ culture of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Following the induction of poll strategist Prashant Kishor in the ruling Trinamool Congress, the TMC Supremo in open said that though she didn’t know about the ‘cut money culture was existing in TMC but she ordered it stop at once.
With popular TMC leaders including the ‘Chanakya’ Mukul Roy defecting to the BJP, it added to the dent on the Trinamool Congress.
Even after Sarada and Rose valley Ponzi scams where several TMC leaders had alleged connection and Narada sting operation that revealed several TMC leaders taking bribes, the TMC could retain its power in 2016 Assembly polls, but with more leaders defecting to BJP and with active participation of West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and West Bengal BJP observer Kailash Vijayvargiya reaching out to the grassroots along with other leaders lead to the immense popularity of the saffron camp in 2019 parliamentary election and during 2021 Assembly polls.
Even after returning to power in 2016 due to several rifts with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and failing to keep promises in North Bengal, the TMC gradually lost hold over the North Bengal which the saffron camp gradually took over. Out of 18 parliamentary seats that BJP had won in 2019 mostly was from North Bengal.
On visit, even Free Press Journal experienced the same as most people of Siliguri (the heartland of North Bengal) and Jalpaiguri cried foul against TMC stating that despite several promises the ruling party didn’t pay heed to the difficulties faced by the people of North Bengal.
Despite not having a strong organization in West Bengal by putting days and nights together the BJP from three Assembly seats in West in 2016 managed to win 18 parliamentary seats in 2019, and the alleged atrocities of the ruling Trinamool Congress just added a feather to BJP’s cap.
It can be recalled a section of senior TMC leaders were also got miffed after the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee gave more preference to her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Several miffed leaders including Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the TMC supremo believes ‘development of her nephew’.
It can be recalled that while Suvendu was the head of Trinamool Congress’ youth wing, Mamata Banerjee opened another wing and named it ‘Yuva’ and made Abhishek its head.
While, several poll analysts, the last nail in the coffin for the TMC was the ‘violent’ rural polls in 2018 where TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed to the poll for making ‘opposition free’ West Bengal. Another section feels that the alleged ‘Appeasement politics’ by the Trinamool Congress left a sizeable section of traditional Hindu voters vote for the BJP for their Hindutva.
The BJP leaders silently took the opportunity for the misdoings of the TMC and promoted it in favour of the saffron camp.
Incidentally, in the 2016 assembly polls, the BJP’s vote share was 10.2per cent and in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it went up to 40.3 per cent mainly because of Hindus gravitating towards the party.
The Dalits, Matuas and other refuges were also seen voted for the BJP as they feel that ‘citizenships’ can be given to them only if the BJP is voted to power as the TMC even here allegedly didn’t keep its promise.
The extremely popular face of the BJP is its state president. Dilip Ghosh despite facing several hindrances was seen visiting the grassroots to motivate the grassroots workers.
“It was not that difficult, the wrongdoing of Mamata Banerjee, her nephew and main prominent leaders of the TMC led to their downfall. The developmental work done by the PM also made people of West Bengal in favour of the BJP,” Dilip was once heard saying.
West Bengal BJP observer Kailash Vijayvargiya feels that for ‘cut money, ‘syndicate rule’, ‘appeasement politics’ people have chosen to side with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“The people are sensible and they know that in order to live good life employment and a corruption-free government is needed. Neither the Left Front nor the TMC regime brought any change to the lives of the people in West Bengal for which they had shown their trust to Modi and BJP,” claimed the BJP central leader who has been working silently to make the BJP’s organization strong in West Bengal.
