New Delhi: Ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP is looking to win over the Bengali Bhadralok, a common term for the state’s mainly upper caste elite, who traditionally voted for the Left parties before switching over to the Trinamool Congress.
The BJP is now looking to make headway in this demographic and has put four of its members on the job. They include Anirban Ganguly, director of the BJP-affiliated Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation; the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta; former governor Tathagata Roy and ex-journalist Rantidev Sengupta.
The four have been leading a team of 40 members and have already held meetings in 190 of the constituencies to influence Bengali intellectuals and the state’s middle class about the party’s roadmap if voted to power.
The team intends to cover all 294 assembly constituencies in the state before the elections.
On agenda, violence, ‘appeasement’ & lack of development
The BJP has been playing up political violence, what it calls “appeasement politics” by the TMC and lack of development in the meetings it has been holding with the Bhadralok.
On 15 February, while addressing intellectuals at Palta in North 24 Parganas district, Ganguly claimed that Bengal has been ruined in the last three decades by illegal infiltration, demographic change and appeasement politics.
He also released a booklet on the Marichjhapi massacre, which took place under the Jyoti Basu government on a tiny island in the Sundarbans where Hindu Dalit refugees had settled. Several people are believed to have died in the massacre.
Ganguly told ThePrint that the booklet was an effort to refresh people’s memories of the history of political violence by the Left.
He also claimed that the TMC government last December honoured H.S. Suhrawardy, the third chief minister of undivided Bengal who has been blamed for the Great Calcutta killings of 1946.
“We are only reminding people and the intelligentsia about the downfall of Bengal on all development indexes in the last three decades due to appeasement politics, a confrontationist attitude and political violence,” Ganguly said. “The next year will mark 75 years of West Bengal’s creation. We need to ask how we have slipped in law and order, investment and development parameters.”
Ganguly added that the party is also presenting its roadmap for the state. “We have been presenting our vision for every sector from agriculture, health to education,” he added. “We have also asked the intellectuals about their vision and their short-term and long-term hopes and goals for the state.”
Party reaching out to grassroots intellectuals and influencers
The BJP isn’t confining its activities to the state’s urban areas — it has been reaching out to intellectuals and influencers in rural pockets as well.
As part of the effort, the RSS general secretary Suresh Joshi last week met Kamalini Soren of the Sangh-backed All India Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram who was honoured with the Padma Shri last year.
In his 15 February event, Ganguly felicitated Jagadish Chandra Halder, creator of the ‘Bantul the Great’ comic strip who was also honoured with the Padma Shri last year.
“We are honouring grassroots intellectuals in different districts,” Rantidev Sengupta told ThePrint. “Why should the Bhadralok be confined to just Calcutta? Bengal is the land of art, culture and literature. We are reaching out to those who are nationalist, have a grassroots connect and want a new Bengal.”
BJP hurt by lack of strong cultural icon
BJP leaders who are members of the ‘intellectual team’ admitted to ThePrint that despite their best efforts, the lack of a strong cultural icon in the party is hurting the efforts.
The party had attempted to convince former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly to take the political plunge but he has stayed away for now.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to actor Mithun Chakraborty’s residence in Mumbai Tuesday is being seen as an attempt to get a prominent cultural icon to back the party but the actor has dismissed suggestions that he may join politics.
“We have many faces like Babul Supriyo and Rupa Ganguly but we know we have no universal Bengali icon and a brand name,” said a Bengal BJP leader who is part of the team.
“It is the reason we are working on different strategies of invoking Bengali nationalism through symbolism and by reaching out to the Bhadralok. (Amit) Shah’s visit to Tagore House and Bankim Chatterjee house is part of this strategy.”
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