One of the main reasons for the BJP not winning a landslide in the 2024 general elections, despite breaking into new territory like Odisha and Telangana, is that it did not fare well in the three biggest states: Uttar Pradesh (80 seats), Maharashtra (48 seats) and West Bengal (42 seats). That’s underperforming in nearly a third of Lok Sabha seats straightaway.
In UP and Maharashtra, the BJP has repeatedly been the single largest party and it will find it easier to recover. But in West Bengal, it has been a rising force against nightmarish odds. Slipping back every inch there is going to cost the party ten times the effort to regain it in the future.
In West Bengal, the BJP is up against a mass leader with extraordinary electoral instincts, a culture of wanton political violence, an economy riddled with debt and corruption, and a border state with the bloodiest Partition in Bharat’s history, where the demography is getting skewed every passing day.
But in spite of all this, West Bengal is one place where the majority Hindu voter is ready to pour all it has on the BJP’s plate, but the leadership is not yet ready to accept it. Hindu consolidation behind the party in the 2019 general elections was more than 60 per cent.
The factors for the BJP’s underwhelming results in West Bengal are numerous, but there are five broad things that the party needs to consider if it is serious about fixing things in the state.
First, dispel the whispers about a Didi-Modi secret pact, whether imaginary or real. This whisper campaign, which swept almost every believing or disbelieving household in Bengal, was perhaps the single largest factor in spoiling the BJP’s chances.
From Rose Valley to SSC, Saradha to Narada, coal robbery to cow smuggling, and Covid relief material to PDS, perhaps no other state in Independent India has had so many scams in such a short time. Still, none of the topmost leaders have been arrested by the central agencies, while Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren, K Kavitha, or Manish Sisodia have been in jail — justifiably so — for misappropriations seemingly of lesser scale.
Saradha and Rose Valley scams alone robbed investors of Rs 30,000 crore by conservative estimates, the Bengal coal scam is tipped at Rs 1,900 crore, while the chief secretary’s report in 2022 placed the loss to the exchequer in the Delhi liquor scam at Rs 580 crore.
Second, the BJP needs to demonstrate strength and ruthlessness. West Bengal rewards the winner, not the whiner. People are programmed to respect the revolutionary capture of rights or power over the optics of victimhood. The BJP will start gaining ground again the moment it begins to exercise power and crack down on corrupt and murderous opponents.
Also, in a polity as violent and intimidatory as West Bengal’s, many won’t risk their life or limb if they believe that the BJP is not strong enough to stand by them and give it back in equal measure and put their tormentors behind bars. Ruthless action will also dispel the conspiracy theory of a Didi-Modi secret pact.
Third, the BJP has to stop getting sewer water from Trinamool in its pond. Except for Suvendu Adhikari, every single TMC leader that the BJP imported has variously proved to be worthless, damaging for its image and organisational morale, or a downright Trojan Horse. When candidates who seem winnable while in the TMC cross over to the BJP, they are seldom accepted by the saffron voter base. The cultural misfits hurt the party. The sudden elevation and entitlement demoralise party workers. And some of the TMC imports had earlier unleashed local BJP-RSS workers, who felt betrayed by the party.
Fourth, the party must unite local leadership and empower the cadre. West Bengal is the most dangerous place for any state Opposition party worker, whether it is the BJP, Congress or the Left. They need to be constantly supported with resources.
Top state leaders need to unite and consolidate the cadre behind the party instead of working like crabs trying to pull one another down. A number of karyakartas privately say they were not even pressed into service during the elections, and sometimes discouraged when they showed initiative.
Also, the tiniest details matter. For instance, BJP workers were apparently served substandard meals or no meals at all by some local candidates or their campaign managers. Most of these workers come from very humble, needy backgrounds. For them, that egg curry rice matters. It shows them that their leaders care. Even the CPI(M), a spent force in the state, still organises generous meals for ground workers.
Fifth, the BJP must make communication a lot more Bengali-led. There needs to be a lot more robust local language IT cell, a wider scope of Bengali content for YouTube and social media, and Bengali-led communication with the exception of top central leaders’ speeches.
West Bengal is fed up with corruption and violence. It is the BJP’s for the taking. The party will just have to keep its ear to the ground and hands ready for tough action.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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