New Delhi: Struggling to consolidate its grip over West Bengal prior to the 2019 general election, the BJP intends to kindle Bengal’s pride by evoking Raja Rammohun Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and its own Syama Prasad Mookerjee, among others, in the coming weeks. The campaign, called “Naba Bongo” (New Bengal), is targeted at the Bengali intelligenisa and the “bhadralok”, who despite repeated attempts have so far steered clear of the saffron brigade’s Hinduvta politics.
Interestingly, the programme — described by the BJP as a “non-political” one — will be launched on January 28, a day before two byelections are due in the state — one for the Uluberia Lok Sabha seat and the other for the Nabopara Assembly segment. The BJP is contesting both seats. Sources said the BJP’s exercise to create a “new Bengal” will continue till the 2019 elections.
While BJP leaders in New Delhi claimed there would be “nothing political” in the campaign, sources said the party will also use the platform to raise corruption cases involving Trinamul Congress leaders, such as in the Narada and Saradha scams, and talk of how West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was “ignoring Bengal’s culture and tradition”, and particularly “Hindu Bengalis”. The “non-political” programme will also “discuss the Narendra Modi government’s schemes and their success, and what the government is doing for the agrarian sector”.
To keep it “non-political”, it will be organised by a cutlural wing of the RSS and “no prominent BJP leaders will attend it”, a senior party leader said. BJP state unit leaders may, however, be seen at the launch at ICCR on January 28.
The BJP, which has been targeting West Bengal over the past couple of years, has not yet been able to make deep inroads into TMC territory. The situation at this juncture is “so bad”, sources said, that the BJP has not only failed to find a leader who could be an alternative to Ms Baner-jee, it has also not been able to find adequate numbers of grassroot workers in the state.
Some BJP leaders in Delhi claimed the move to bring in Mukul Roy (from TMC) had failed to evoke the desired response as no top Trinamul leader swtic-hed allegiance. Even Muk-ul Roy’s son, Subhrangshu Roy, a TMC MLA, has so far refused to follow his father. “My father took his call, but I am staying with the TMC”, Subhrangshu had declared. BJP leaders in New Delhi are also “not too pleased” with the performance of actor-politician Roopa Ganguly.
