BJP will have to add on to the support base they built in the region during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to capture power in the state.
Last Updated:March 18, 2021, 18:22 IST
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday raised the issues concerning the Jangalmahal region of West Bengal, a very important BJP bastion where stakes are high for the BJP. He was addressing a rally in Purulia.
The BJP will have to add on to the support base they have built during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to reach the magic figure to capture the power in the State. That is the reason why Prime Minister gave enough time to address the issues concerning this region, right from deforestation to naxalism and tribals.
Apart from attacking Mamata Banerjee on corruption, poor governance and patronising goondaism, the Prime Minister dwelt in detail about how the Atal Bihari Bajpai government introduced for the first time the ministry for tribal welfare and how his government has introduced new schemes for
the betterment of the tribal community. He was talking straight to the tribals of Purulia and adjoining districts, who have already displayed their support for the BJP.
Prime Minister Modi also talked about naxalism, which had been the main concern for this region, known as ‘Jungle Mahal’, alleging how the TMC had been patronising naxalism so that the people of this region were always at the receiving end.
Citing examples of naxal violence, the prime minister had also accommodated family members of the victims near the stage.
As this entire Jangalmahal area region has a sizable forest cover, the Prime Minister did not forget to talk about the minimum support price for forest produce, addressing those families whose livelihood depends on jungles.
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.
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.
In a move to connect to the local people ahead of polls, Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday invoked Bengali icon and former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly in his speech. He said that like Ganguly hit a six, with the state’s support, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would too hit a six in the assembly elections.
“Whenever Sourav Ganguly crossed the crease, it was sure that he would hit a six. Likewise, with your support in Lok Sabha, we’ve crossed the crease and surely we’ll hit a six in assembly polls and form BJP govt here,” Singh said in West Midnapore.
Ganguly, the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), had recently suffered a mild stroke. According to doctors, three arteries of the 48-year-old were blocked by over 70 per cent and he received a stent in one of the arteries.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar were the first to visit the former India skipper at the hospital. He received calls from the home minister and the prime minister inquiring about his health.
Dhankhar also met the cricketer at Raj Bhavan for the first time, in the over two years he has spent in office. Pictures of the meeting had also gone viral on all social platforms.
According to a report in Indian Express, the hospital authorities had set up a special ‘Sourav Ganguly lounge’ with tea, coffee and water dispensers for visitors who went there without permission. At the lounge, health updates of the former cricketer were shared with the fans at regular intervals.
There were speculations of Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, Mithun Chakraborty and cricketer Sourav Ganguly joining the BJP. However, while Ganguly and Chatterjee haven’t yet joined the saffron brigada, Chakraborty became a member a few days ago.
The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, feels that this is a BJP strategy “to confuse people”. “By clicking pictures with Sourav Ganguly or Bumba Da (Prosenjit) or Mithun Da, who are immensely popular among Bengalis, BJP is trying to create confusion. Like every other false agenda they bring, this is another fake narrative,” the TMC Rajya Sabha MP and theatre director Arpita Ghosh was quoted as saying by The Print before Chakraborty’s entry into the BJP.
Attacking both Congress and BJP, she said, ‘The Congress is like an immovable rock which doesn’t work, except brokering with the BJP in this area. Drive out both of them.’ The chief minister also chanted ‘Khela Hobey’ slogan.
BolSubol, a mobile app for election-related data has been launched by Navi Mumbai-based startup Demokratika. The app has made its debut on Google Play Store ahead of the State Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Assam, and Bengal. The startup claims that the app presents election data for all Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha election from 1960 to 2021 in an interactive visual format. The iOS-specific app will launch on March 15. The BolSubol mobile app aims to provide poll-related data for the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain in future.
As per the app’s official Google Play Store listing, BolSubol is not connected with any government organisation, department, or entity. The app’s goal is “to present publicly available information in a more visually appealing format and allow for civil social conversations.” The main sources of data on the BolSubol include the Election Commission of India, World Bank, Wikipedia, and public news sources. Demokratika aims to make the app a one-stop place for all election-related data. It also includes opinion polls by different news agencies, the Google Play listing states.
Speaking more over the development of BolSubol for Android and iOS, Demokratika executive and one of the directors, Ritesh Verma told PTI, “Except the election commission’s efforts, not much seems to be done by political parties to empower voters. Hence, the app is rolled out. It will offer a powerful microblogging tool.” He added that some features on the app come behind a paywall.
The BolSubol app also seemingly contains information on rallies and speeches, election schedule, economic and demographic data, and global rankings. Notably, the ECI also has its own mobile apps to provide poll-related data. With the Voter Helpline app, users can search their name on the electoral roll and get other FAQs on elections, EVM, and results. Whereas, the Mx. Democracy app is a gaming app co-developed by the National Institute of Design (NID) Bangalore. The app aims to provide a history lesson of elections in India via interactive missions.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikary, who is pitted against his mentor West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Nandigram in the coming state election, has declared net worth of over Rs 80 lakh. As per the 50-year-old leader’s affidavit to the Election Commission his net worth is Rs 80,66,749.32.
His movable assets are worth Rs 59,31,647.32 while his bank balance is Rs 46,15,513.32, including Rs 41,823 in his election expenditure account. His income in 2019-20 was Rs 1,115,715.00 and his cash in hand is Rs 50,000.00, as per his affidavit.
Adhikari also has National Saving Certificate (NSC) deposit of RS 5,45,000 and insurance of Rs 7,71,165. Adhikary has immovable assets including plots of land worth Rs 46,21,102, it said.
In his affidavit the BJP leader has declared that he has criminal cases pending against him. He also declared himself to be a post graduate from Rabindra Bharati University and a resident of Nandigram constituency.
Adhikari had filed his nomination for the high octane battle at Nandigram on Friday. Polling in the constituency is slated for April 1.
Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: The BJP on Saturday is all set to declare names for candidates for Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The meeting will start at 5 pm on Saturday.
The BJP Kerala core group meeting will also take place at party chief JP Nadda’s residence in Delhi before the CEC meeting. Apart from Nadda, Amit Shah, BL Santhosh, K Surendran were also present. This was the meeting ahead of CEC on Saturday.
While Mamata Banerjee has been discharged from hospital on Friday, and left the hospital in a wheelchair, the TMC has already announced an event on Saturday to induct into the party “an eminent personality”. TMC MP Derek O’ Brien, anchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee, and TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay will be present for the event that will be held in Trinamool Bhavan.
Attacking both Congress and BJP, she said, ‘The Congress is like an immovable rock which doesn’t work, except brokering with the BJP in this area. Drive out both of them.’ The chief minister also chanted ‘Khela Hobey’ slogan.