Kolkata: The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to amend its earlier strategy as regards to providing berths to turncoats from Trinamool Congress. Before the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, the party’s strategy was to rope in top heavyweight leaders from Trinamool Congress into its fold.
However, keeping the elections for the three-tier panchayat system in West Bengal scheduled next year in mind, the state unit of BJP will concentrate on roping in grassroots level Trinamool Congress workers in rural Bengal, who have clean images in their respective localities and at the same time are aggrieved over the incidences of top party leaders getting involved in different cases of corruption and financial embezzlements.
According to the West Bengal unit BJP president and party MP Sukanta Majumdar, the slogan would be simple — as a Trinamool Congress activist, if you are honest and are unable to acclimatize with the culture of corruption in your party, then join BJP.
“Rumblings of discontent have started brewing in Trinamool Congress as well over the involvement of senior party leaders in various cases of corruption and this is the right time for the BJP to offer them political platforms. However, nothing has been decided about the heavyweight Trinamool Congress leaders on this count,” Majumdar said.
Trinamool Congress’ general secretary in West Bengal and party spokesman, Kunal Ghosh, meanwhile, taking a jibe at Majumdar said that the wishful thinking of BJP to rope in grassroots level activists will remain a day-dream.
“Our supreme leader and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has always said that the grassroots level activists are the true assets of the party. And the grassroots level activists too have full faith in her and not a single such activist will shift camps,” he said.
CPI-M central committee member, Sujan Chakraborty said that BJP and Trinamool Congress are two faces of the same coin.
“Before any election, such dramas happen and after the polls are over everything goes back to its original shape,” he said.
Commenting on the change in strategy as regards to change in strategy as regards to roping in turncoats, veteran political analyst, Arundhati Mukherjee said that the panchayat polls have a totally different matrix compared to Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
“The participation of the grassroots level party activists is much more in the case of rural civic body polls, than Lok Sabha or assembly polls. And again since the polls in each tier of the panchayat takes place over a limited area, the image of the grassroots level activists contesting matters a lot.
“That is the reason why I think BJP this time has decided to rope in grassroots level Trinamool Congress workers with comparatively clean images. Only time can say how far they will be successful in this attempt,” she said.
–IANS