BJP will hold the state government accountable for alleged graft in teachers’ recruitment, coal scam and illegal cattle smuggling.
NEW DELHI: As part of BJP’s mega push towards reviving itself in Bengal, the Bengal unit of the BJP is organising a massive “Nabbano Chalo” (State Secretariat) rally to protest against the alleged corrupt practices of the Trinamool Congress government in the state.
According to senior BJP leaders, the “Nabanno Chalo” will help the party gauge the support base it still has in Bengal by looking at the turnout in its favour and the efforts that have been put in by all its district units to make the rally successful. The party is organising the “Nabanno Chalo abhiyaan” on 13 September where it is expected that all party MPs, MLAs, all the organisational members of the state and district units will descend in Kolkata and march towards the state secretariat in Howrah district of West Bengal to hold the state government accountable for the alleged scam in the teachers’ recruitment, coal scam and illegal cattle smuggling.
The clarion call for the “Nabanno Chalo abhiyaan” has been circulated by the BJP as “Chor Dhoro Jail Bharo” (catch the thieves and fill the jails). The Trinamool Congress government is facing allegations of scam in teachers’ recruitment through the state government’s School Service Commission, for which its former education Minister and close aide of Mamata Banerjee, Partha Chatterjee, was arrested last month. Several TMC leaders are also facing charges of coal scam and illegal cattle smuggling along the India-Bangladesh border for which the CBI has also arrested the TMC’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal.
This is what the BJP is trying to cash in on ahead of next year’s Panchayat elections in the state and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Senior BJP leaders say that the BJP is at its weakest point in the state in the last several years and the BJP must act now to cash in on this for the party to revive itself in the state. “The TMC is facing several charges of corruption and this is what the BJP will cash in on. The party was in slumber for a very long time, but it is time that the party wakes up as a serious and responsible opposition in the state. If successful, the Nabbano Chalo Abhiyaan could be a turning point in the politics of Bengal for the next few years,” a senior BJP functionary from Bengal told The Sunday Guardian.
However, many within the BJP are also sceptical of how successful the Abhiyaan would be given the fact that the state unit is marred with infighting and differences among the senior leadership of the party in the state. Many are also saying that the success or failure of the rally would mark a stamp on the state president Sukanta Mazumdar’s organisational capabilities as it would be one of the biggest rallies that the BJP has planned to take on the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal.
Earlier last month, at the three-day training camp that the BJP held in Bengal, senior BJP leaders from the Centre, including National general secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santosh as well as the newly appointed state in-charge Sunil Bansal, had also asked the party leaders to ensure that the 13 September rally of the BJP becomes a major success so as to give a strong message to the government and the people of the state that the BJP still holds the place of a formidable opposition in the state.