Bengal election: Hathras rape case haunts BJP's campaign plan

KOLKATA: BJP’s plan to rake poll-bound West Bengal’s "deteriorating" law and order issue in its election campaign designed by the party’s national president JP Nadda has received a jolt in the wake of the Hathras rape case, sources in the party said.

The ruling Trinamool Congress has already sharpened attack on the BJP amid the law and order crisis and women’s safety row in saffron camp-led Uttar Pradesh.

The party’s new initiative titled 'Uma' to portray the crime against women scenario in Bengal has also suffered a set back after the alleged gang-rape and murder of a Dalit woman in UP. 

"In the meeting with the national leadership on October 1 in Delhi, Nadda directed us to highlight the issues related to state’s affairs, instead of talking much about Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens. We have been asked to portray issues like corruption among the ruling party functionaries, Bengal’s deteriorating law and order situation and barring central of schemes for the poor. The UP incident has become talk of the nation and the heat has not left Bengal untouched. Before attacking Mamata Banerjee’s government on law and order issue, we will have to wait till the people’s sentiment calms down," a BJP leader said.

In a bid to woo the Dalit and backward class electorates in the state who are deciding factor in 84 out of 294 assembly seats, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took out a march in Kolkata on Saturday protesting the brutality in UP. She also announced her party would continue staging protests for the next week across the state.

The women wing of BJP’s Bengal chapter recently initiated a venture titled 'Uma'. "We planned to highlight how women in the state are lacking security under the new campaign. But the Hathras incident has almost ruined our plan. At present, we are not in a position to highlight Bengal’s issue related to women’s security," admitted a functionary of the BJP’s women morcha.   

"We don’t know how much damage Hathras incident will cause to our Dalit vote bank. It will be cleared after next year’s assembly elections," said a BJP leader.