Mamata Banerjee has wrapped up an eventful Delhi visit that featured a cameo in Supreme Court in the case over Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a fiery meeting with the Election Commission, and moves towards an impeachment motion against the nation's top election officer. If this was an attempt to set the agenda ahead of the West Bengal election, the BJP has a strategic response.
The ruling party has advised its Bengal leaders against losing the plot to Mamata Banerjee's SIR politics and has suggested that it would be wiser to go to the interiors of Bengal and draw attention to the “misgovernance of the state government” rather than confront Mamata Banerjee in Delhi.
The BJP's central leadership believes that Bengalis are angry with Mamata and “significant” anti-incumbency sentiment has built up over 15 years of the Trinamool government. But the BJP's Bengal dream remains unfulfilled, and it blames organisational shortcomings. The leadership believes the party must act now.
There has been a flurry of meetings. Nitin Nabin, the new BJP president, visited Durgapur last week and called a meeting of the party's executive committee members, functionaries and office bearers at the Hotel Fortis. Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari attended that meeting. Nitin Nabin reportedly told leaders to focus on their campaign at the booth level, just as Amit Shah has stressed in the past.
In another meeting Tuesday at Sukanta Majumdar's home in Delhi, the BJP's Bengal MPs were instructed to return to the state and “start actively working for the election campaign”. More talks are expected when Amit Shah visits Bengal at the end of this month – his second trip in weeks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to visit the state.
But the BJP's central leadership believes no matter how often PM Modi and Amit Shah visit Bengal, nothing will change unless the state unit gets its act together and develops a narrative against Mamata.
The BJP is likely to craft its campaign around what it calls Mamata Banerjee's “appeasement of Muslims, poor governance and corruption”, among other issues. Many leaders in Delhi believe the party failed to effectively capitalise on recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) linked to alleged sand and coal smuggling cases.
As Mamata tries to shift the media spotlight to SIR and her party's impeachment plan, the BJP wants the focus to be firmly on what it calls her poor governance. Its leaders will spread out across districts to push the campaign. The BJP leadership's directions to Bengal leaders are clear - try and shape the narrative, forcing Mamata and her party to respond on their terms, instead of the other way round.
