Claiming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had betrayed the people of West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress chairperson and accused her of brutality towards political opponents.
“Mamata didi runs a school of brutality where tolabaji (extortion), cut money, syndicate and anarchy form syllabus,” Mr. Modi said, while addressing a rally in Kharagpur.
During his speech, the Prime Minister referred to the 2018 panchayat polls in the State and said that the whole world watched how the democratic rights of the people were curtailed by not allowing them to take part in elections.
“This time, Didi will not be allowed to trample on democratic rights. What the Trinamool Congress used to do in the previous election will not be allowed this time,” Mr. Modi said.
He raised slogans such as Bhoy noi, Sudu joi (No fear only victory)and Is Baar BJP Sarkar (This time, it will be a BJP government).
The Prime Minister also showered praise on State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, saying that the party was proud to have a chief like him who withstood several attacks at the hands of the Trinamool.
Mr. Modi also pointed out that about 130 of the BJP’s cadre had been killed by Trinamool workers.
Referring to Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee hailing from the State of West Bengal, the Prime Minister claimed that the BJP was the only party of Bengal in true sense.
“The DNA of the BJP has the DNA of Syama Prasad Mookerjee,” he added.
The remark by the Prime Minister is aimed to counter the campaign of the Trinamool that BJP is an outside party.
Mr. Modi also took a swipe at the Trinamool slogan Khela Hobe (The game will be played).
“Didi is saying Khela Hobe. Entire Bengal is saying ‘Khela Sesh Hobe Vikas Hobe (Game over, now there will be development),” he said.
The Prime Minister said that only a double-engine government of the BJP, with the party in power in both Delhi and Bengal, could bring the State out of distress.
Targeting Trinamool leader and Ms. Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the Prime Minister said that while in the entire country there were attempts to ease out processes and have a single-window system, in Bengal there was another unique single-window system.
“That single-window system in Bengal is Bhaipho [nephew] window,” he said.
A delegation of senior TMC leaders met with officials of the Election Commission (EC) on Friday, objecting to recent decisions taken by the body and calling their approach “partisan and biased”.
The TMC and the EC have had a frosty relationship of late, with the ruling party in West Bengal having questioned the commission’s decisions and accusing it of acting in favour of the BJP.
The TMC continued to question the EC in a letter submitted Friday.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that free, fair and transparent elections in the state of West Bengal is becoming a distant reality. This is evident from the partisan and biased approach taken by the EC in respect of the ongoing elections in the state,” said the letter, which was signed by TMC MPs Derek O’Brien, Saugata Roy and Mahua Moitra as well as former BJP leader and Union minister Yashwant Sinha, who recently joined the party.
The party took umbrage over media reports of an EC decision that state police personnel would not be allowed within 100 metres of polling stations.
“It has been reported in the media that the EC has decided to not permit the presence of state police within 100 metres of polling stations and only deploy Central Forces in such an arena. If true, this decision is unprecedented and casts severe aspersions on the reputation of the police administration in the state of West Bengal,” the letter states.
Sources in the EC told The Indian Express that it has not prohibited the state police’s presence but rather, the instruction is meant for the civic police, who are civic volunteers who are deployed in aid of the state police. They do not have legal police powers but aid in maintenance of order and traffic control usually.
The second issue raised by the TMC was a demand of the tally of all VVPAT machines, which they claimed have been “summarily dismissed… allegedly on account of the Supreme Court of India decision in March 2019”.
“It may be noted that the very purpose of installing VVPAT machines are considerable cost has deliberately been made redundant and ineffective. We may remind you, that not only was the said judgement primarily meant for the 2019 general elections but that the law insists that every time EVMs are used, there must be a sui generis consideration of facts, circumstances and necessities,” the letter states.
Billed as the most remarkable state election in recent times, the showdown in West Bengal boils down to two questions in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) camp: who is the David and who is the Goliath in this epic encounter, and can the party cash in on sub-regional equations and what it believes to be a sentiment in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to dislodge chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s government?
Ask senior BJP leaders in Delhi and they cite Banerjee’s recent injury to drive home the point that the Goliath is now trying to portray itself as the David, a reference to the biblical story of underdog David defeating the giant Goliath in combat.
According to party insiders, the visuals of Banerjee campaigning on a wheelchair after she was injured at a rally in the high-profile Nandigram constituency earlier this month — she has alleged a BJP plot to kill her — appear to be a last and desperate throw of the dice by the chief minister.
“Here is a two-time CM with the muscle power of a well-entrenched cadre, money and resources…(but) the proverbial Goliath suddenly wants to play the sympathy card against a party that was a non-entity in the state with just three seats five years ago,” a BJP leader says, requesting anonymity.
Instead, the BJP says, it is the one that has struggled to find even hoarding space for publicity materials in the state, especially in Kolkata, which is plastered with Banerjee’s face, but is still being projected frantically by the ruling Trinamool Congress as an “outsider” and the dominant aggressor.
Nonetheless, the BJP camp thinks it has multiple reasons for its confidence that it will win Bengal, which has 294 seats. The BJP leadership has set a target of winning over 200 of them.
Replicating UP, Tripura Strategy
Bengal will be to Modi’s NDA II what Uttar Pradesh (UP) was to Modi’s NDA I, the BJP camp believes. In India’s most populous state, which has a 403-member assembly, the party rose from 47 seats in 2012 to 325 seats in 2017. Now, it sees a similar momentum in Bengal. The strategy for the eastern state seems borrowed heavily from UP as well as Tripura, where the BJP had a tough job in hand. But eventually, it ended the Left’s 20-year-old rule in Tripura in 2018, winning 36 of the state’s 60 seats. Significantly, it had drawn a blank five years ago.
A pointer to the “sweep” the BJP expects in Bengal is the response that Modi has been getting in there since 2019, party insiders say, claiming similarities in UP between 2014 and 2016 with people thronging his rallies.
This is said to be the reason why Modi could address as many as two dozen rallies in all in Bengal, rivalling what he did in UP, which has 37% more seats, in 2017. In Bengal, Modi has chosen to attack alleged corruption and nepotism under Banerjee’s watch, factors the BJP feels reflect the ground narrative.
BJP leaders cite smaller pointers too. Like a section of people in Nandigram coming out to counter Bannerjee and the Trinamool’s version of events leading up to her injury. This kind of a reaction is unlikely towards a government that is returning to power, a senior minister and a star campaigner says. Another is “Jai Sri Ram” becoming a slogan “that has come from the people” and a sign of discontent against the Trinamool government, the minister adds. This, the BJP feels, has reflected in the CM’s recitals of Chandi Path to showcase her Hindu identity, and her manifesto dropping a specific section on Muslim welfare, which was there in 2016. Moreover, her increasing personal attacks on Modi only work in the BJP’s favour, as she does not seem to have picked a trick on this front from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, according to party insiders.
The PM is focusing on promises that the BJP feels are silently ringing a bell among the electorate on the ground — Rs 18,000 pay-out to each farmer in one go under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi plan, Rs 5-lakh medical insurance cover under Ayushman Bharat, the roll-out of ambitious drinking water scheme Har Ghar Jal, and bringing Hindu OBCs (Other Backward Classes) into the reservation net. Banerjee has had to counter this by promising monthly income support for state residents and reservation for some backward Hindu caste groups under the OBC umbrella.
Meanwhile, BJP’s ministers have been told to drill in the point that the state’s infrastructure is stuck in the 1960s and that Banerjee has refused to implement the Centre’s schemes for political reasons and minority appeasement. The law and order plank is being raked up to dent Banerjee’s women voter base.
Countering Trinamool
The BJP is, however, cognisant of the Trinamool’s sub-regional strength. It also remembers its below-par showing in the large pocket of South Bengal even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which it won 18 out of the 42 seats. But 2021 is not 2019. The mood is “all-pervasive” and the party has built upon its 2019 success, BJP insiders reason. This includes wooing the tribal people and the Scheduled Castes (SCs), reaching out to the Dalit Matua community, and BJP president JP Nadda’s promise to include “left out” Hindu castes in the OBC list if the party wins the elections. It hopes this would offset 30% Muslim votes that could consolidate behind the Trinamool, although the Left-Congress-Indian Secular Front bloc is also in the fray.
Divided on the lines of religion, caste and community, Bengal offers a complex challenge of sub-regional politics. Banerjee’s strongest fort is South Bengal with over 90 assembly seats, but the BJP feels the region may have a different pattern of voting for the first time. The North 24-Paraganas and Nadia districts (40 seats) near the border with Bangladesh have the Matua community, who are refugees from Bangladesh, as the deciding factor in 15-16 constituencies. The BJP feels it has an edge with the promise of operationalising the Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA, once the Covid-19 vaccination is over. The BJP leadership has stressed its commitment to implementing the law that fast-tracks citizenship of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis who have arrived in India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015. Modi’s planned visit to a Matua temple during his Bangladesh trip, on the first day of polling in Bengal, will be an event high on optics.
The road remains tough for the BJP in South Bengal’s big district of South 24-Parganas, which is the only district where the Trinamool got leads in all 31 assembly segments in 2019. Muslims account for at least 30% of the total population here, and that makes the BJP’s challenge difficult until there is an absolute polarisation of votes. The party is, however, hoping for a turnaround in the key East Midnapore district, which has been a strong citadel of Banerjee. With Suvendu Adhikari, who used to manage these areas for the CM, defecting and being fielded against her from Nandigram, the BJP hopes political equations will change.
The BJP is also trying its best to hold on to its dominance in ‘Jangalmahal’, the forested and interior rural areas of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore that contributed to its impressive showing in 2019. Banerjee has launched several cash schemes for tribal people here to regain lost ground. Similar are the expectations from North Bengal, where the BJP won all six Lok Sabha seats in 2019 with support from Rajbanshi indigenous communities in Coochbehar and the namasudras in border districts. Namasudras, including Matuas, are refugees from Bangladesh. For them, the CAA promise is a key factor.
The BJP is also hoping that the Muslim-majority districts of Malda and Murshidabad will side with the Congress again, causing a split in Muslim votes and denting Banerjee’s chances in the process. The hill districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, however, remain a mystery with the traditionally strong party, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, splitting into two factions. The one led by Bimal Gurung has joined hands with the Trinamool, while the BJP has chosen not to align with any faction.
War of Wits
The BJP won’t cross 100 seats, the Trinamool’s strategist, Prashant Kishor, has said, a claim the BJP sees as a tacit admission of its impending rise. The ruling party is playing up protests inside the BJP over ticket distribution and has alleged low attendance at rallies by BJP leaders. As the battle heats up, some assume the BJP may run Trinamool close, but not win. They think that the BJP will have to be content with a “moral victory” like the Congress claimed to have in Gujarat in 2017. But home minister Amit Shah’s declaration that the BJP will win 200+ seats shows each seat matters. For Modi and Shah, David, or the BJP in battle ground Bengal, beating Goliath paves the road to a third term at the Centre in 2024.
India will implement a GPS-based toll collection system and do away with all toll booths within a year, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also shared details of the vehicle scrapping policy, first announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, according to which the automobile industry in India will see a jump in turnover to ₹10 lakh crore from ₹4.5 lakh crore.
Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday to urgently hear a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms to stay the sale of a new set of electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Top U.S. and Chinese officials offered sharply different views of the world on March 18 as the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. In unusually pointed remarks for a staid diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi took aim at each other’s policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska.
The EU’s drug watchdog said on March 18 it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks following an investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Insurance Amendment Bill 2021 that increases the maximum foreign investment allowed in an insurance company from 49% to 74%, amid criticism from the Opposition parties on the clause enabling “control and ownership” by foreign investors.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday forbade judges from making gender stereotypical comments like “’good women are sexually chaste”, women who drink and smoke ‘ask’ for sexual advances or presume that a sexually active woman consented to rape while hearing cases of sexual offence.
Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that climate activist Disha Ravi’s arrest was based on law and order and it is under judicial process. He added that the House should consider “should some people abuse social media internationally to defame India to promote secessionism.”
Former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian resigned from Ashoka University on Thursday, days after noted columnist and political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s exit. In his resignation letter, Dr. Subramanian, said he had been “devastated” by “the circumstances involving the ‘resignation’ of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta” two days earlier.
In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two candidates announced by the party on Thursday for the Assembly polls from Kolkata have refused to contest on the party’s ticket.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed suo motu proceedings before the Delhi High Court on the administration of COVID-19 vaccine and transferred the case to itself. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said a similar case concerning the vaccination drive was already pending in the Supreme Court, and the case from the Delhi High Court could be heard along with it.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a plea to release and protect over 150 Rohingya refugees reportedly “detained” in Jammu. Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde agreed to hear the application filed by a member of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Salimullah, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza, on April 25 (Thursday). Mr. Bhushan made an oral mention before the CJI for an early hearing.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the supplementary demand for grants (second batch for 2020-21) but not before significant concerns raised by Opposition leaders on the government’s disinvestment and asset monetisation plans, and rising fuel prices.
If Ishan Kishan was unfortunate to be ruled out of the fourth T20I due to a groin strain, lady luck smiled on his replacement Suryakumar Yadav. The Mumbai cricketer, dropped for the previous outing after not having faced a ball on his debut in the second T20I, grabbed his chance and made it count.
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Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: In Bengal, TMC’s Sisir Adhikari may join the BJP.
Last Updated:March 19, 2021, 07:44 IST
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Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: As the elections in the five states of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry get closer and parties have announced most of their candidates list, it is becoming clear what the battle will look like in each state.
On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Assam to campaign. He will interact with college students at Lahowal, Dibrugarh. He will then meet tea garden workers in Dinjoy Tea Estate in Chabua and have a public meeting in Tinsukia.
Meanwhile in Bengal, more TMC leaders are jumping parties. Sisir Adhikari is also likely to join the BJP.
This comes even as TMC leaders including two TMC MLAs, one former MP, a former TMC minister and a CPI MLA who joined BJP recently could not find their names in the list of candidates for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth phases of West Bengal Assembly elections.
BJP General Secretary Arun Singh said, “BJP’s central election committee (CEC) has approved the names of candidates on 148 seats for West Bengal Assembly elections.”
PURULIA: Resuming his campaign in Bengal with a new take on Trinamool’s “khela hobe” catchphrase and more than a smattering of Bengali, PM Modi on Thursday declared “vikas hobe, chakri hobe (there’ll be development and jobs)” to voters in Purulia before delivering the punchline: “Didi-r khela sesh hobe (Didi’s game will be up) and Bengal’s journey to development will begin on May 2”. The PM peppered his “development” narrative with references to Trinamool’s “appeasement politics” and its alleged culture of “tolabaazi (extortion)” and “cut money”. “Otyachar onek korechho, Didi. Bhoi dekhanoi tomar ostro. Rukhe darabe ebar Banglar manush. Ma Durgar ashirbade korbe tomay porasto (You have tortured people enough. Your only weapon is fear-mongering. People of Bengal will rise in opposition. They will defeat you with the blessings of Ma Durga),” he said at Hutmura in Jangalmahal.
“I know how your rights and benefits are being denied. If Didi had any concern for the backward communities, she wouldn’t have turned this region into a hotbed of Maoists. People in Bengal know how coal mafia and the sand mafia are getting indulgence here.” As in his first Brigade rally in Kolkata on March 7, PM Modi said Trinamool even distribution of relief in the wake of the devastation wrought by cyclone Amphan last year wasn’t spared by Trinamool’s alleged system of taking cut money. “They (Trinamool) wanted the victims to deposit commission in the party office first to get relief materials,” Modi said. “Under this process, you can get relief even if you didn’t face any loss. We believe in direct benefit transfer (DBT). They believe in ‘transfer my commission’, which stands for TMC. This is why Ayushman Bharat or the PM Kisan Nidhi schemes were not implemented, because ‘TMC’ doesn’t apply in those projects.” The PM accused Trinamool of never considering Adivasis, backward classes and Dalits, who constitute a large section of voters in the Purulia belt, as its own. “These sections have been the worst victims of the cut-money culture and tolabaazi by the party,” he said. Questioning why water-starved Purulia didn’t have a water project yet, PM Modi said these were issues BJP would address. “The khela (game) over recruitment of teachers will also be done away with.” Modi reminded the gathering that 36 lakh people in Bengal had received free LPG connections under the Bharat Ujala Yojana. “We have also increased MSP for forest produce. We have made huge allocations in the Budget for the education and employment of Adivasis and Dalits. Hundreds of Eklavya schools are being opened.” Targeting CM Mamata Banerjee for her “stand” on issues concerning national security, the PM said, “People of Bengal have a strong memory. Bengal remembers who accused the Army of plotting a coup, and whose side you (Mamata) took during the Pulwama attack. People remember the stand you took when Delhi police officer Mohan Chand Sharma was killed in the Batla House encounter. A Delhi court has since exposed the forces behind it. The court sentenced one of the accused to death for killing the officer. These people (Trinamool) had sided with the terrorists and questioned the encounter.”
The poll pot is about to reach boiling point and, among all the states where elections are to be held, West Bengal is generating the most heat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the biggest star campaigner and vote-catcher for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and his appearance has provoked much curiosity and conjecture in the past few months. His long hair and flowing beard have led to comparisons with Rabindranath Tagore. Party leaders have pointed out that universalism and self-reliance are among the poet’s views that Modi has connected to his policies and politics, even as the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress has been trying to paint him and the BJP as “outsiders”.
But this is not the only connection the PM has with Bengal. Modi came to Delhi as Prime Minister in 2014. However, his first visit to Tagore’s land happened long back. At the age of 17, when he left home to tour across the country, one of the first few places he visited was the Ramakrishna Mission at Kolkata’s Belur Math. In fact, he wanted to become a monk but faced rejection three times. Swami Madhavanandaji, the-then president of RKM, turned Modi away. He finally met Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj, who was the Mission head in Rajkot in 1996. Swamiji had a huge influence on Modi’s life by bringing to him the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.
In fact, after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi’s first visit to Bengal in May 2015 saw him go to the Belur Math and Dakshineswar Kali Temple and meet an ailing Swami Atmasthanandji Maharaj in hospital.
From coining terms like “Ashol Poriborton” which translates to “real change” to counter the TMC slogan “Khela Hobe” (game on), to his own style of saying “Khela Shesh, Vikas Shuru” (game ends, development begins), the PM has often received thunderous responses from crowds at rallies in poll-bound Bengal.
When speaking on Bengal, Modi has often been mentioning mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa, mathematician Radhanath Sikdar, philosopher Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, novelist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Independence icon Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Nobel Prize-winning poet Tagore, all proud sons of Bengal’s soil.
Those who’ve followed the journey of Narendra Modi will agree that he has the art of picking up local languages and speaking them even if it’s just a couple of sentences or even a few words.
On the occasion of Mahashashti last year, the PM had virtually inaugurated a Durga Puja programme organised by the BJP’s mahila morcha and its cultural wing in Kolkata. He began his speech in Bangla by saying, “Prothome aapnader shokolke janayi Shree Shree Durga Pujor, Kali Pujor priti o subhechha. Banglar ei pobitro bhumi te Durga Pujor shomoy aapnader shokoler moddhe aashte pere aaj aami nije ke dhonno maanchi (I extend my greetings for Durga Puja, Kali Puja and I feel very lucky to be with you on the holy land of Bengal on this occasion).”
Even when speaking at the Victoria Memorial on the January 23 Parakram Diwas celebrations this year to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Modi spoke quite a few lines.
At the 2019 ‘Howdy, Modi!’ mega event in Houston, the PM had said, “When you have asked ‘Howdy, Modi!’, then my heart says the answer to that really is, ‘All is well in India’.”
He added, “Bharat me sab achha hai … Sab changa si … Saba maja mache … Anta baagundi … Ella chenaagide … Yellam soukhyam …Sarva chhanchalale aahe… Sab khub bhalo… Saboo bhalaachhi,” in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, etc.
In fact, whenever he is visiting a state, he uses the local languages to get local connections.
On October 31, 2020, while speaking at the National Unity Day celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Kevadia, PM Modi had quoted a poem in Tamil by legendary poet Subramania Bharati, which speaks of India being a “golden country”.
While addressing the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Shri Jagadguru Vishwaradhya Gurukul in Varanasi in February last year, the PM received widespread applause as he spoke in four different languages, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, and Hindi, on the occasion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in fact is often seen exchanging tweets with world leaders in their local languages and a similar response comes from them in Indian languages. From the Japanese PM to the Australian Prime Minister to the Israeli government, Modi’s personal touch with everyone is unmissable and the connection quite personalised.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party TMC as he played on the “Khela Hobe” slogan to say: “Didi, O Didi – you played for 10 years. Now the game will end and development will begin”.
Speaking in Purulia ahead of the eight-phase Bengal election starting March 27, the prime minister targeted Banerjee over “corruption and lack of development”.
“Didi says khela hobe, BJP says jobs; Didi says khela hobe, BJP says education; Didi says khela hobe, BJP says development; Didi says khela hobe, BJP says the rise of women; Didi says khela hobe, BJP says jobs; Didi says khela hobe, BJP says you will get a pucca house, clean water and taps in every home,” said the PM.
PM Modi also accused Banerjee of encouraging Maoists and dubbed the TMC ‘Transfer My Commission’ Party.
Declaring that the countdown for the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in Bengal had begun, the prime minister said in Bengali: “Atyachar onek korechho Didi. Ebar Ma Durgar ashirbadey korbay tomaye oporosto (You have oppressed people for long. Now with blessings of Ma Durga, you will be defeated).”
The Matuas are a religious sect of West Bengal comprising largely of Namasudras, the second largest lower caste group in West Bengal with a share of 17.4% of the Dalit population of the state. They are basically a migrant community from Bangladesh. As per different estimates, they are around 70 lakh to 1 crore in number though community leaders put it at 3 crore. Their main demands are citizenship rights and refugee rehabilitation.
The Rajbanshis are the largest SC group of the state forming 18.4% of the Dalit population in the state. Their number is estimated to be around 50 lakh. They want territorial autonomy with many community leaders demanding a separate state, Greater Cooch Behar with some districts of West Bengal and Assam. They also want an Indian Army battalion named as Narayani Sena, the army of the erstwhile Princely State of Cooch Behar.
Matuas and Rajbanshis
Once TMC supporters, both the communities recently switched to the BJP wagon based on the poll promises.
Matua and Rajbanshi Factor in the Last Lok Sabha and Assembly Election
BJP promised Matuas and other refuges of West Bengal Indian citizenship through the CAA, winning their support that helped it in winning around 10 of the 18 overall victory mark.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in fact, started his 2019 Bengal campaign from Matua Mahasangha headquarter in Bongaon in Thakurnagar.
While BJP is trying to replicate the same connect in the upcoming Assembly election as well, Mamata is also playing her cards after some Matua leaders getting vocal on CAA delay. They are angry that the central government is yet to announce the CAA implementation date even after two years of the Lok Sabha polls.
Mamata says BJP made a fake promise and Matuas don’t need Indian citizenship and in fact if CAA is implemented, Matuas will lose land and identity.
But BJP that got its first Assembly success in the state in a Namasudras dominated constituency only, Basirhat Dakshin Assembly constituency in 2014, and went on to wrest the Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that was earlier held by the TMC and CPM, looks all set to fill that gap.
Amit Shah broke bread with a Namasudra household in November and assured Matuas and other refuges of the state that CAA will be implemented once the Covid vaccination drive is complete in the country. Also, PM Modi, during his Bangladesh visit, will visit a Matua temple on March 27.
Before the 2016 Assembly election, the BJP allied with the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association (GCPA). In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP made electoral promise of naming a battalion on Narayani Sena. With Rajbanshi’s support, the BJP was able to west the Cooch Behar seat from TMC.
The TMC is trying to win them back over. While the Indian Army is yet to have a Narayani regiment, Mamata has already created a Narayani Battalion in the state police force along with announcing state holiday on the birth anniversary of Panchanan Barma, a Rajbanshi icon and reformer. She has also approved a Rajbangshi language board and 200 Rajbangshi-medium primary schools.
The bus part of BJP’s ‘Rath Yatra’ was vandalised on Tuesday in West Bengal’s Purulia. The incident occurred shortly after Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s rally in Purulia district’s Manbazar area.
Many police personnel have been deployed in the area after the incident and BJP has alleged that Trinamool Congress is behind the vandalisation, but ruling Bengal party has denied the claims.
The incident allegedly took place when the ‘Poriborton’ Rath Yatra was returning to Purulia after completing rounds of all nine assembly constituencies of the district.
BJP’s rath for the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Samman Yatra, parked in Purulia, vandalised. Driver suffered injuries. BJP national president J P Nadda would be flagging off the yatra anytime now from Kotulpur. TMC won’t be able to do much to stop it!What is Pishi so scared of? pic.twitter.com/8bD8gAzPUC
BJP leader Amit Malviya said the bus driver was injured in the incident.
“BJP’s rath for the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Samman Yatra, parked in Purulia, vandalised. Driver suffered injuries. BJP national president JP Nadda would be flagging off the yatra anytime now from Kotulpur. TMC won’t be able to do much to stop it!,” he said.
Reports said BJP workers and supporters, led by the party’s Manbazar candidate Gouri Singh Sardar, have begun blocking roads in the city, demanding that those responsible for the incident be arrested immediately.
