Mamata’s turf Bhawanipore at the crossroads after Shah’s visit BJP president prepares master plan to take on TMC in Bengal
DISRUPTION In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the assembly segment gave the Trinamool Congress the jitters as well as embarrassment
“Why not Bhawanipore?” BJP president Amit Shah had quipped with a smile when the media asked him on Wednesday afternoon why he was hellbent on visiting voters in chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Assembly constituency.
In less than two hours, Shah’s real intentions were on display in the hitherto unseen images splashing on Bengali television channels. Kalpana Mondal, a slum dweller in the Lock Gate area had saved some prasad from the “Shitala pujo” held the night before and served it to Shah, while her neighbour, Mamani Mondal, looked on. Sandhya Adhya, the third woman, even complained to Shah about lack of civic amenities, especially the absence of separate bathing facilities for women.
“The excitement was palpable and many people were happy, though all of them might not have expressed it,” said Prabal Mukherjee, a Calcutta high court lawyer whose family have been living in Bhawanipore for generations. “It is no secret by now that people are not satisfied with the present regime and in BJP they see hope,” he added.
Interestingly, Shah visited Ward 82 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, a place in the Bhawanipore constituency where the BJP’s support base is minimal in terms of votes. The local population comprised mostly Bengali-speaking middle-class, slum-dwellers and some Muslims.
If there was once place in Bhawanipore where his trip evoked enthusiasm then it was ward 71 where, the BJP candidate, Ashim Basu, emerged victorious in the 2015 civic elections. Though Basu later switched over to Trinamool, the ward still retains a significant number of BJP followers. It is one of those pockets in the city where the Bengali-speaking population is a minority.
“Non-Bengali speaking people constitute 65-70% of voters in Total voters Polling station
Profile of residents: Mostly service holders and small/ medium traders
Communities: Bengali, Marwari, Gujarati, Sikh and Bihari Margins in various elections:
2016 Assembly elections: Trinamool wins by 25,301 votes
2015 municipal elections: Trinamool won 7 wards, BJP won 1
2014 Lok Sabha elections: BJP led Trinamool by 185 votes
2011 Assembly By-poll: Trinamool won by 54,000 votes
2011 Assembly elections: Trinamool won by 50,000 votes
2009 Lok Sabha elections: Trinamool led by 41,000 votes
ward 71. Of them, about 30% hail from Bihar and another 25% from Gujarat. Sikhs, Marwaris and Tamils comprise the other non-Bengali ethnic groups,” said a TMC leader, who lives close to the chief minister’s home.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bhawanipore Assembly segment (that elected Mamata Banerjee in 2011) gave Trinamool Congress the jitters as well as embarrassment. Banerjee’s closest confidante and Trinamool candidate from the South Kolkata Lok Sabha seat, Subrata Bakshi, trailed BJP’s Tathagata Roy. And, in the 2016 Assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee’s margin of victory came down: from 54,000 in 2011 to 25,000.
In 2016, the Congress nominated Deepa Dasmunsi, wife of veteran leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, while the BJP fielded Chandra Bose, grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Many voters and politicians argued that Banerjee would have faced a tough time had the votes not got split among two opposition candidates.
Interestingly, Kolkata’s Sikh community forms a sizeable portion of the population around Harish Mukherjee Road and the Jadu Babu Bazar area of Bhawanipore but Trinamool leaders claim that they are confident of retaining support of the Sikhs.
On Wednesday afternoon, however, there was not much display of enthusiasm among people in the Chetla area, a stronghold of Trinamool minister Firhad (Bobby) Hakim. After the visit of the BJP president, Trinamool leaders seemed to have turned cautious. “If there are flaws in our public relations strategy, we will certainly try to rectify. We are not migratory birds like BJP leaders. We are glued to the ground and serve the people round the year,” said Pranab Biswas, Trinamool councillor of ward 82 where Amit Shah paid his visit.
Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee might be reacting sharply to BJP president Amit Shah’s statements during his three-day tour of Bengal but it is the CPI(M) that may have more reasons to worry.
For taking on the famous organisational strategy of the Marxists, Shah has specifically asked Bengal BJP leaders and workers to rise and spread from the state’s 77,000 odd polling booth areas, not from the top.
Shah told party leaders at a closed-door meeting on Thursday that the process of purchasing land and property for setting up ‘karyalayas’ or party offices in all districts should be completed by June this year, senior state BJP leaders told HT. The decision is significant because Bengal’s three-tier panchayats will go to polls next year.
If BJP can successfully replicate the Left model, it will be easier for the party to not only counter the Trinamool but win over disillusioned Left supporters as well, state BJP leaders feel.
“Amitji asked us to concentrate on each and every booth area and build up contact with individual voters. This, he said, should not be confined to mere instructions from the top of the hierarchy. People responsible for building up the organisation in every ‘mandal’(zone) and district have to hit the streets ...,” said a top BJP leader quoting Shah.
According to party leaders, Shah entrusted state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, to monitor the new plan of action. After going through reports on infighting in the Trinamool in several districts, he also told Ghosh and other leaders to keep the door open for Trinamool workers and district leaders who were not happy with their party.