West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asked voters in North Bengal to create a mandate against the “outsider” BJP, claiming that the party is trying to destroy the state with their “divisive politics”. The Trinamool Congress supremo further said that both BJP and RSS are “not the real Hindus” as they only spread hatred.
“Despite doing so much for the people in North Bengal, we have not won a single seat from North Bengal. Why? How come BJP, who came from outside, won all the seats? What was our fault in the last 10 years? The RSS and BJP are trying to take control over Bengal for their vested interest. They are not the real Hindus. They are not Ramakrishna or Vivekananda as they only spread hatred,” said Banerjee while addressing a public rally in Jalpaiguri district.
To boost the morale of TMC leaders and workers, she said that all should work together in North Bengal to ensure the defeat of BJP in West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021, which are likely to be held in April-May.
The Chief Minister, who is on a three-day visit to North Bengal, chaired a core-committee meeting with TMC leaders, workers, booth presidents of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts to chalk out poll strategies.
Banerjee also accused the Centre of interfering in the state’s jurisdiction by summoning IPS officers to serve under it. “They are trying to convert West Bengal into Gujarat,” she said.
Speaking on the attack on BJP president JP Nadda’s convoy recently, she asked, “Why there were so many cars accompanying his convoy? Why were convicted criminals accompanying him?”
“If the central government think that they can scare us by bringing in central forces and transferring state cadre officers, they are wrong,” said Banerjee, while referring to Centre’s summons to three IPS officers in Bengal.
Meanwhile, referring to a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy over changing the national anthem, Banerjee said, “Bengal will give a befitting reply if they will try to change our national anthem. They changed our history and now they want to change our national anthem.”
Not just this, the Chief Minister also spoke on citizenship issues and said, “We have already recognised and regularised refugee colonies in West Bengal. There is nothing to fear about it.”
Chief Minister Banerjee is leaving no stone unturned to regain the lost grounds in North Bengal since the region has become a tough battle for her following TMC’s devastated performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Out of eight Lok Sabha seats including Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat, North Malda and South Malda in North Bengal, Banerjee has miserably failed to win a single seat as seven out of eight went to BJP, while Malda South was secured by late Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s brother Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury from Congress, commonly known as ‘Dalu da’.
In Malda North, BJP’s Khagen Murmu had defeated sitting MP Mausam Noor (former Congress MP but fought last Lok Sabha on TMC ticket), while in Malda South ‘Dalu da’ won the seat by defeating BJP’s Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury. TMC’s Md Moazzem Hossain stood third with 27.47 per cent vote share.
In remaining seats, BJP’s Nisith Pramanik, John Barla, Jayanta Kumar Ray, Raju Singh Bisht, Deboshree Chaudhary, Sukanta Majumdar and Khagen Murmu had sent shock waves in the TMC camp by winning Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat and North Malda, respectively in the last Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has grown exponentially in North Bengal and therefore, Banerjee has already gone for a major organisational reshuffle recently to iron out the faction feud in the party before the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls.
Rajbonshi community people are certainly a big factor in Bengal’s politics. With more than 30 per cent vote share, Rajbonshi are undeniably a deciding factor to turn the tables for any political party in North Bengal.
They were the deciding factor during the Left rule till Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011. Now, Rajbonshi has favoured the BJP which led to devastated poll results of the TMC in last Lok Sabha (comprises of Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Alipurduar and Coochbehar districts).
Banerjee knows it well that any significant division in the Rajbonshi vote share – a deciding factor in nearly 50 out of 54 Assembly segments in North Bengal (out of 294 Assembly seats in the state) – could jeopardise her mission ‘Ekush’ (2021 Assembly polls).
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