The party also plans to address lawlessness, illegal infiltration and job generation as part of their poll agenda for West Bengal.
New Delhi : After posting an impressive win by bagging 18 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal during the general elections, the BJP has already started preparing itself to be viewed as an “alternative force”, which can take the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC head on in the state.
BJP members are of the opinion that in order to win the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal, the party needs to have in place its own developmental agenda like restoration of the rule of law in the state, identification of illegal infiltrators (National Register of Citizens), focus on bringing in investments and generating jobs.
A highly placed BJP source told The Sunday Guardian, “The first target of the party is to make all the 23,000,000 voters who voted for us, as official members of the party under the Sadasyata Abhiyan. The second target is: the difference of votes polled between BJP and TMC is 17 lakh , so there is a Vistarak Yojana which is also going on simultaneously with the the Sadasyata Abhiyan and the presence of vistaraks has been widened to target the 17 lakh voters whom we did not have in the first place. One of the strategies to reach out to the voters is to develop relationship with large Hindu organisations, small-time maths and missions, so that we can use their circle of influence.”
He added, “Soon the national working president is going to pay us a visit and then we will exactly know what will be the strategies for 2021. The first strategy is to gather as much support, institutionalise them and internalise them so that if you have a card holding member in the party, then the chances are that particular vote is assured for you.” He also said that the response has been great so far and the tension in TMC government is quite clear from the fact that the CM had tried to dismantle the BJP campaigns a couple of times.
He stressed that a state must be conducive for investment to flow in and “Mamata has only aggravated the situation for the worse”.
A senior BJP leader said, “There are people who take commission and act as police and are known as civic police. They are hired by TMC on contractual basis, and because their uniforms are similar to paramilitary forces they are often mistaken as police and are not questioned for anti-social activities.”
He also said that the BJP wants to turn reserved contracts into open contracts, which was not the case before. “We want to end ‘tolabaji’ in West Bengal. From acquiring a new plot to getting your house painted, these extortionists ask for money. BJP is focused to put an end to this menace if it comes to power.”
Talking about the lawlessness in the state, a senior BJP leader said, “People in Bengal have suffered a lot under the Mamata Banerjee government. Teachers are being assaulted for trying to intervene and resolve a quarrel between students over chanting ‘Jai Mamata’. To make matters worse, West Bengal CM also pulled the state out of the Ayushman Bharat scheme; people are forced to travel to other states to avail medical facilities.”
He also said, “We had a meeting to discuss issues in Bengal, which highlighted multiple problems. There are no industries, there is no job generation in the state, and students are forced to move to other cities. Also, if a person is engaged in fishing, they are forced to give one-fourth of the output to TMC leaders or else they face grave consequences.”
Naveen Kumar, BJP spokesperson in Delhi, said, “People are being thrown out of the party if they take the name of the Prime Minister or his party. This should not be the case in a democratic country. If Mamata Banerjee randomly keeps putting people behind bars and engages in violence, the public will definitely look for ‘change’ and that change is BJP. The law and order situation in UP was in a bad state, it took the Yogi government to improve the situation. I can assure the same for Bengal if BJP comes to power.”