For Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its right wing politics of neo-nationalism, liberal economic policies and even pro-Hindutva religious slant, poll-bound West Bengal offers more than a Herculean challenge and jigsaw puzzle.
Even as the saffron party's
electoral fortune surged ahead in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, slowly the party
leaders are realising that at several quarters in the on-going assembly polls,
more than the organisational weaknesses, the saffron party faces "basic
ideological barriers".
Culturally and intellectually, Bengali voters
are "essentially pro-Left", say those in the know of things. "The fact that Bengali voters
and even other citizens in the state remained pro-Left ideologically,
culturally and intellectually it make things difficult for BJP in
West Bengal unlike neighbouring Assam where the pro-Hindutva slant actually
always had acceptance among upper caste Assamese voters," says one leader.
Thus the saffron party poll managers
believe that while the party is near the striking distance in Assam, despite
all efforts to woo the voters as against the non-performance of the Left and
even Mamata Banerjee-headed Trinamool Congress, BJP finds the going
tough in terms of winning over seats. In Assam, upper caste Hindus could
relate to Brahminical appeal of the RSS and the BJP unlike in West Bengal where
"ironically upper caste Bhadrolok" have been associated with the
Marxist politics for decades now.
In fact, other than BJP leaders,
even Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, a former associate of BJP and
onetime convener of NDA, says, "Indian leftists cold not make much headway
in northern states as they could not appeal to backward and lower caste groups.
Thus these lesser privileged communities flocked to the socialists block".
In the Bengal context,
even the state Governor K.N. Tripathi told a seminar in February this year in
Kolkata that while higher educational institutions are becoming hubs of
politics, "the role of the students organisations should be changed.
It is to inform and to make the students aware through lawful means. This is a
factor which needs to be taken care for the larger interest of the
society".
Many see Governor's remarks this as
commentary on violence-oriented political culture in West Bengal --
which again largely draws inspiration from communists way of looking at
things. Trinamool MP and former union
Minister Sishir Adhikari has merits in his analysis: "Under Marxists misrule and when
Singur and Nandigram happened, people of Bengal saw us as the genuine
followers of communists ideology. That was the turning point of Bengal.
Being New Left: Advantage Mamata |
This was when, he pointed out,
Trinamool leaders started mocking CPI-M leaders as "pseudo followers"
of Karl Marx.
Still lacking mass appeal |
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