Importantly five years back during 2021 assembly elections perhaps for the first time, voters in West Bengal started "thinking on their own" and not in the "idiom" of the communists or in the culture minority appeasement of Mamata Banerjee.
****
The Trinamool supremo remains one of the toughest and among the most famous female and influential regional leaders. She remains one unvanquished leader for Team Namo, She was at the forefront of toppling more than three decades of communist rule and is a fierce street-fighting politician.
**
The 'Bhadralok' (upper caste gentleman and symbol of Leftist approach) in Bengal in the past did not cherish ‘caste-based’ politics as the term is understood in UP or Bihar. Nor they showed inclination to respect Hindu sentiment. All these came under scanner in 2021.
The spirit continues in 2026 too and that gives BJP's hopes high.
But the BJP has been realising that even prior to 2011, the Left Front could not be defeated in Bengal from a rightist platform.
So despite the best attempts personally from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and strong opposition from the likes of the late Ajit Panja, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool had quit the BJP-led NDA.
One strict peculiarity remains -- a sizable Bengali Hindus still feel Politics should not be mixed with Religion. They may also feel, Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration is not so dangerous phenomenon as made out to be by the BJP.
This peculiarity gets complicated when Muslims remain polarised and hence genuine Indian Bengali Muslims and the uninvited guests (infiltrators and bogus voters) remain solidly anti-BJP and would still vote for Mamata -- without or with incidents like RG Kar rape 'kando'.
And thirdly; there is an inherent 'hatred' for Hindi leadership (read language) imposition from Delhi and Gujarat.
There may be a new political philosophy – ‘Hindu-Hindi-Hindustan’ which may and still may not be acceptable by the people.
Thus while ‘Jai Shri Ram’ could not be dismissed as a slogan of the north India and Gujarat, in 2026 the BJP is not giving much push to the same.
The secret of Modi-Shah electoral strategies also lies in the fact that Mamata Banerjee’s ‘hawai chappal’ and claim to simpleton life style has been ‘questioned’ by a large section of voters. But TMC has played 'Banga Bhanga' narratives at times vis-a-vis north Bengal.
However, these are not making much impact in 2026 unlike the past. Still the BJP is careful ... and so now the repeated line is - "BJP is Syama Prasad Mookerjee's party ... and Bengal will remain undivided and united as envisioned by Syama Prasad himself".
BJP state unit president Shamik Bhattacharya repeated the same line during a press conference on March 19th,
Bengali Hindus often speak about themselves and say - "we may get angry with thieves and start eating from floor itself; because the utensils were stolen and taken away".
"Chorer Upor raag kore ... Maati tey bhaat khau-a"
To break it up we may add - there is a shared pride among Bengali Hindus to practice a new radicalism -- stepping out of line and relishing not being conservative.
Often these have harmed the state.
These factors work in favour of Trinamool Congress. Let us break these further.
---- If Mamata is seen as someone 'genuinely' fighting Narendra Modi (with or without Hindutva image) .. things can still work in favour of TMC.
In the past iconic Congress chief minister B C Roy "battled" Jawaharlal Nehru and in Kolkata intellectual circles there was a cherished perception that Jyoti Basu too battled Indira Gandhi and later other Congress leaders.
Hence, when Basu described BJP as a barborous party -- it was largely seen as the Kolkota hero crusading against Delhi and against Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Thus, West Bengal offers more than just a Herculean challenge and jigsaw puzzle to Amit Shah and BJP strategists because the politics of neo-nationalism, liberal economic policies and Hindutva slant all end up colliding with each other.
Even as the saffron party's electoral fortune surged in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls -- giving it 18 seats in 2019; leaders acknowledge that they are still up against basic ideological barriers more than organisational weaknesses.
Vote share in 2019 surged to about 40 per cent.
No comments:
Post a Comment