West Bengal: BJP blames ‘TMC terror, police harassment’ for civic poll debacle

Party leaders made the claims at an organisational meeting in Kolkata to deliberate on theBengal BJP’s weakening organisational hold in districts, The meeting, which was attended by the party’s co-in charge for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, national vice-president Dilip Ghosh and state president Sukanta Majumdar, among others, also discussed the BJP’s dismal showing in the recent polls to 108 civic bodies where it failed to open its account.

After winning 77 seats in the last Assembly polls and emerging as the primary Opposition force in the state, the saffron party has been on the downslide in Bengal as was reflected by a series of heavy defeats in by-elections as well as the civic polls.

According to sources privy to the meeting, the BJP state president claimed that apart from Trinamool cadres, a section of police personnel has also been threatening party workers in the grassroots, thereby making it difficult for them to work without fear. Majumdar added that the alleged violence after the Assembly poll results and intimidation by the ruling party cadres and the police were the reasons why BJP workers in the grassroots were forced to stay away from politics, campaigning and other poll-related work. He added that the Left, which emerged as the second largest party in the civic polls in terms of its vote share and seats won, was slowly starting to elbow out the BJP as the principal Opposition force in the state.

“Our state leaders, including the state president, said while our workers, on one hand, were still facing attacks from Trinamool supporters, the state police was also acting as an extension of the ruling party targeting and threatening our leaders and workers in the districts. This is breaking the backbone of our organisation in the grassroots,” said a senior BJP leader after emerging from the closed-door meeting at National Library auditorium. “Majumder also alleged a tacit understanding between the ruling party and the Left. The ruling party is giving space to the Left during campaign and on polling day while targeting the BJP,” the leader added.

However, speaking to media persons, senior CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty denied the BJP’s claim of a nexus between the Left and the Trinamool, saying there was actually an “understanding” between the ruling party and the BJP. “There is actually an understanding between the BJP and the Trinamool, which is why not a single ruling party leader has not been arrested by the CBI in any case, be it the Ponzi scam or cattle smuggling racket. The people of Bengal have understood this,” Chakraborty said.

While the TMC won the bulk of the civic bodies, 102 to be precise, in the recent polls, the Left managed to retain the civic board in Taherpur, Nadia. The ruling party’s vote share was at 62.44 per cent, comfortably ahead of the Left and the BJP which bagged 13.57 per cent and 13.42 per cent votes respectively. Even in the elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) last year, the Left stood second in 65 wards while the BJP finished runner-up in 48. The Congress took the second place in 16 wards and the Independents in 5. The Left finished ahead of the BJP by securing 11.87 per cent votes as against the latter’s 9.19 per cent.

In the polls to four more civic bodies — Asansol, Biddhannagar, Chandannagar and Siliguri —held on February 12 this year, the Trinamool received 61 per cent votes while the BJP’s was down to 14.5 per cent. The Left Front, which failed to win a single seat in the Assembly polls last year, fared relatively better than the saffron party, getting 16.75 per cent of the vote share. The Congress only managed to secure 3.5 per cent votes.