Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit the campaign trail in West Bengal even before the Lok Sabha elections were announced and from his utterances, made it clear about how the BJP would fight the electoral battle in the state. In his twin public meetings in Arambag and Krishnagar on Friday and Saturday, the Prime Minister repeatedly emphasised how the Trinamool Congress has given a short shrift to the women and the minorities—read, Muslims—of Bengal and had patronised criminals who preyed on them and indulged in unbridled corruption.
BJP sources said that their party’s outreach during the Lok Sabha campaign would prominently feature the stories of the women and minorities who have faced atrocities at the hands of the Trinamool Congress leaders.
“We are collating all the television bites which show that Muslims and women were targeted in Bengal with Mamata’s blessings,” a source said. “TMC now stands for Tu, Main Aur Corruption hi Corruption (You, me and corruption and corruption),” PM Modi said on the second day of his Vijay Sankalp Yatra in Nadia’s Krishnagar and asked for all 42 seats from Bengal in the next Lok Sabha polls.
During his speeches, he stated that although the women of Sandeshkhali “cried out for justice,” the state’s ruling party “looked elsewhere.” “The people of Bengal gave a huge mandate to the Trinamool again and again, but have been deceived every time. Today, the Trinamool is synonymous with atrocities and betrayal,” he said. “TMC vishvaasghaat, atyachar, bhrashtachar, parivarvaad (TMC means betrayal, atrocities, corruption and dynasty politics). They want to keep the people of Bengal poor so that they can carry on with their dirty games,” he said.
PM Modi stated: “Using the slogan of ‘Maa, Maati, Manush’, the TMC government used the women of Bengal as a vote-bank. Today, Maa, Maati and Maanush are all in the TMC mode of governance. Women of Sandeshkhali kept asking for justice, yet the government did not hear them.” PM Modi said that the Trinamool Congress had no “intention” of arresting the principal accused in the Sandeshkhali incident.
“But the nari shakti of Bengal stood like Goddess Durga and forced Mamata’s police to arrest the criminals.” Referring to the events at Sandeshkhali where former local Trinamool unit president Shahjahan Sheikh (arrested on Thursday) and his henchmen controlled the area, PM Modi said: “They want the tolabaaj (extortionist) to decide on the beneficiaries of Central government schemes.”
He took a swipe at the Trinamool government, saying: “In Bengal, the police do not decide when a criminal must be arrested; it’s the criminal who decides everything for himself. The state government did not want the accused in the Sandeshkhali incident to be arrested…,” he added. He added that all BJP workers supported the Sandeshkhali women in their fight for justice, adding, “Then the state government relented,” alluding to the arrest of Shahjahan Sheikh. The women of Sandeshkhali had launched intense protests and rallies in Sandeshkhali accusing Shahjahan Sheikh, who was apprehended last week after missing for almost two months, of landgrab and sexual abuse.
According to the last Census figures, of Bengal’s 73,294,980 voters, 35,927,084 are women. This number has increased after the publication of the revised electoral rolls, a source said. Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has enjoyed the backing of a substantial number of women since she assumed power in 2014. Women voters played a big part in Trinamool’s performance in the 2021 Assembly polls, when the party won 217 seats as compared to the 77 seats won by the BJP.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee, in order to shore up her support base, has announced the doubling of Lakshmir Bhandar, a direct fund transfer scheme for women, which would be effective from May 2024. “In the past few elections, women voters of Bengal were apparently inclined to the Trinamool, especially after Lakshmir Bhandar. If we want to win at least the same number of seats as in 2019, we have to break Trinamool’s hegemony over the women’s vote-bank.
Sandeshkhali has shown the world how the Trinamool leaders exploited both women and the minorities,” a senior BJP leader told The Sunday Guardian. Locket Chatterjee, BJP MP, said: “Many women I meet are fond of the BJP and our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, but they do not know what he has done for them. There are so many obstacles on the ground because of the ruling Trinamool Congress.” Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee has been making all attempts to hold on to her crucial Muslim vote bank in the state by painting herself as the sole defender of the community.
At her “Sarba Dharma (all-faith)” rally in the Muslim-dominated Park Circus area on 22 January, the day of Ram Lalla’s consecration at Ayodhya, Mamata had urged the Muslim voters not to “waste their votes” by supporting any party other than the Trinamool Congress.
With Mamata recently announcing that the Trinamool Congress would contest the Lok Sabha polls alone in Bengal, the stage is set for a threecornered contest, which may see the minority vote get divided between the Trinamool Congress and Left-Congress alliance. The BJP is the principal Opposition in the state.
The Trinamool Congress needs to get as much support as possible from the Muslim community, which accounts for 27% of the state’s population, to counter the BJP. The minority vote could prove crucial for the Trinamool Congress as the BJP seeks to consolidate its Hindu base by banking on Hindutva and the Ram Temple.
Of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, there are seven that have Muslims in a majority and another six where the minority votes can be the deciding factor. In the 2019 polls, the Trinamool Congress had won three of the seven Muslim-majority seats and all six seats with sizeable Muslim population.
State BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP-elect Samik Bhattacharya said his party only believes in “decisive” politics. “Her (Mamata’s) brand of secularism is that she will chant ‘Jai Maa Kali’ in the morning and attend minority rallies in the evening. She is used to this kind of politics. The Congress, too, is no different. Her politics is divisive politics and our politics is decisive politics,” he told The Sunday Guardian.