BJP Expects 'Good News' with Priyanka Tibrewal in Bhabanipur, Once Bastion of Syama Prasad Mukherjee

Why Priyanka Tibrewal? It’s a question many asked after the Bharatiya Janata Party, following much deliberation, announced the name of the lawyer as its candidate against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for the September 30 Bhabanipur assembly bypoll. The TMC chairperson is contesting the election as she has to get elected to the state assembly within six months of taking charge as chief minister on May 5. She lost the Nandigram assembly seat to her former protégé Suvendu Adhikari, now with the BJP, in the state polls held this year.

Many observers feel that Tibrewal was picked because she is an excellent taskmaster and is fighting legal cases against the ruling TMC in the state on post-poll violence and killings, which drew the attention of the central BJP leadership.

Another section believes that the state party unit was left with few options as most probables it recommended before the central leadership refused to contest.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “We approached a couple of BJP leaders and she emerged as our candidate because she is an excellent taskmaster and hardworking too. There are some who refused to contest. After many consultations, the central leadership has decided to field her. I hope she will give her best and people will certainly understand that this battle for Mamata Banerjee is just to retain the CM’s chair, but for us it is a battle to bring back the lost glory of Bengal. And I am sure Priyanka will pave the way for it by defeating Mamata Banerjee. We think she can give a good fight against the chief minister because of her good communication skills. She is a very fine orator as well. She is known in the area as she is well connected with the residents of Bhabanipur. I am sure that she will bring some good news for the party. To be very precise, we were looking for a fearless face who can highlight the real issues in Bengal and Priyanka fits in there.”

Tibrewal joined the BJP in August 2014 after being suggested by Babul Supriyo, the singer-turned-BJP politician, and inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She was the legal adviser of Supriyo.

In 2015, she contested the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections from ward number 58, Entally, as a BJP candidate, but she lost to the Trinamool Congress’s Swapan Samaddar.

During her little more than six years in the BJP, she has handled many important assignments, and in August 2020 she was made the vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in West Bengal.

She contested the assembly elections this year from Entally but lost to the TMC’s Swarna Kamal Saha by a margin of 58,257 votes.

Tibrewal was born on July 7, 1981, in Kolkata. She studied at Welland Gouldsmith School and graduated from Delhi University. After that, she got a law degree from Hazra Law College under Calcutta University in 2007. She also did an MBA course from Assumption University of Thailand.

Tapas Roy, the deputy chief whip of the TMC in the state assembly, said Tibrewal would lose her security deposit in the election. “Please mark my words, Didi (Mamata Banerjee) will win with a record margin,” he added.

BJP leaders feel that they can get a good result in Bhabanipur because the party, despite losing, has never faced a devastating defeat on this seat. Also, they believe that since the area is historically linked to Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of the BJP’s predecessor Jan Sangh, the party can expect some support. Party MP Arjun Singh was appointed as the observer of the Bhabanipur seat.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Tathagata Roy was the BJP’s Kolkata South candidate and he stood second to TMC’s Subrata Bakshi, but he took a lead in the Bhabanipur assembly segment by 184 votes.

In the assembly polls this year, out of total eight wards in Bhabanipur, the BJP was leading in two and was trailing only by a small margin in another two.

The constituency has a sizeable BJP support base, mainly comprising Gujaratis, Sikhs and Biharis.

On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence falls in the Bhabanipur constituency and it has been a stronghold of the TMC since it came to power in West Bengal in 2011.

That year, Trinamool’s Subrata Bakshi won the seat by nearly 50,000 votes, defeating his nearest rival Narayan Prasad Jain of the CPI (M). The TMC had fought the election in an alliance with the Congress.

Bakshi vacated the seat to make way for Mamata Banerjee, who was an MP, so she could get elected to the state assembly. She won the bypoll after defeating her nearest CPI (M) rival Nandini Mukherjee by a margin of nearly 54,000 votes.

Mamata Banerjee started her campaign for the Bhabanipur election on September 8.

Addressing a TMC workers’ convention in Chetla under Bhabanipur constituency recently, she said, “There was a conspiracy against me in Nandigram and therefore I lost. The matter is in court now. How come a booth where about 500 voters are there the polling of 1,000 happened? Courts don’t accept pleas without evidence. They (the BJP) conspired to defeat me.”

The Congress has decided not to field a candidate against Mamata Banerjee, while its ally the CPI (M) is likely to field advocate Shrijeeb Biswas.

The bypoll will be held on September 30 and the counting of votes will be on October 3.

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