BJP changes Bengal strategy after defeat in Delhi

Party is re-strategising its pro-CAA campaigns in districts of the state.

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party which faced defeat in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections is looking at re-strategising its poll campaign for West Bengal. The BJP is eyeing to win the Assembly elections due next year.
According to top BJP sources in West Bengal, the party is looking at re-strategising its pro-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) campaigns which the party is currently undertaking in every district.
“The BJP lost Delhi due to its aggressive campaigning in favour of the CAA; even here in West Bengal, the party is going all out campaigning in favour of the CAA, while the Trinamool Congress-led by Mamata Banerjee is holding simultaneous campaigns against the CAA. This could affect the BJP in several seats. In Bengal, there are at least 70 Assembly seats where minorities decide who would win and in such a situation, the party cannot afford to start negatively,” a BJP functionary from West Bengal told The Sunday Guardian.
The party is also deliberating to launch district level campaigns on the failed promises of the Mamata Banerjee government and an aggressive campaigning to highlight the mis-governance and “goonda raj” in Bengal.
Another senior BJP leader from West Bengal told this correspondent, “We cannot keep our campaign solely based on the issue of CAA; yes it is likely to reap benefits for the party in some parts of Bengal, but to win Bengal, we need to highlight and focus on the mis-governance and failed promises of the Mamata Banerjee government. People are fed up with cut money and goonda raj; we need to highlight this and make people remember every day that if Mamata Banerjee comes back to power once again, this is what they will get.”
Apart from this, the BJP leader also said that the party taking cue from Delhi should start full-fledged campaigning at least a year ahead, telling people what better governance they would give if elected to power and that the party should focus on pushing the idea of better governance in Bengal.
Some senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party from Bengal have also raised the issue of a chief ministerial candidate for Bengal.
One such BJP functionary from Bengal told The Sunday Guardian, “We should not go to polls in Bengal without a Chief Minister face. The BJP lost Delhi because it could not give a face that could take on Kejriwal. Even here in Bengal, a strong Bengali face would be required to take on the larger than life image of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.”
“We cannot keep fighting elections under the name of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. For local state level elections, the party will need to counter Mamata Banerjee with an equally strong face. Modi and Shah are good and respectable in Bengal at the national level, but for the state, local faces are needed,” the BJP functionary said.
Even senior BJP leader from West Bengal and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Swapan Dasgupta recently said: “A chief ministerial face is a must. Modi-Shah cannot be a substitute.”
He also said that the party needs to have a vibrant local unit with presence in each mohalla and that not only during the polls, but also before and after it.