West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's impassioned opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is borne out of the fact that the BJP is growing in West Bengal by leaps and bounds.
Over the years, Banerjee blistering attacks on the CPI(M) have resulted in the virtual decimation of the Left parties from West Bengal's political scene... to an extent that even Banerjee could not have anticipated. Today, Banerjee is, perhaps, regretting her decision to wipe out the Left from the electoral scene in Bengal.
The BJP has targeted winning 23 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, out of 42. Most of these seats are in the northern and western parts of West Bengal, with a few in North 24 Parganas and Kolkata and its vicinity.
But Kailash Vjayvargiya, BJP general secretary and state in-charge, argues, "That target (23 seats) was fixed long back. Today, we are going to get more than that target. Don't be surprised if we get that."
With election dates yet to be declared, BJP leaders are coming to West Bengal in large numbers. They are fanning out all over the state—from north to south and east to west. Interestingly, they are pulling in large crowds.
What has alarmed Banerjee the most is last year's panchayat elections where the BJP won the second-largest number of seats, pushing the CPI(M) and Congress to distant third and fourth spots. That success came despite the open hegemony of TMC cadres on the streets. Several thousands of opposition candidates were not given a chance to file their nominations.
Despite this, the BJP activists stuck their necks out and went to the electoral officers to file their nominations. Out of 54 people killed in panchayat poll-related incidents, the majority were from the BJP. This showed that the BJP's win in many seats in panchayat elections was not a 'fluke', but a result of hard struggle and rigorous fights.
This time, with elections to be held under a different environment, under the strict vigil of the Central armed police forces, Banerjee's fear is that BJP's aggression could cost her party dearly.
Banerjee is thus making it tougher for the BJP to reach out. Modi's Thakurnagar's rally did not take place at its originally intended venue. BJP chief Amit Shah met the same fate and even worse, his helicopter was not given proper landing facilities. Shah landed on a BSF ground at a border village in Malda.
The helicopter carrying Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the same fate at Balurghat. Adityanath addressed the gathering via telephone, sitting in his office. Adityanath, however, reached Purulia by road, crossing the Jharkhand-Bengal border a couple of days later. The helicopter carrying Home Minister Rajnath Singh was denied permission to land in Hooghly. Interestingly, Singh is known to be among the few leaders in the BJP who are close to Banerjee.
The list does not end there. BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain was all set to land in Murshidabad's Lalbagh, but was denied permission. Then came former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and newly appointed BJP central vice president, Shivraj Singh Chauhan. He was also supposed to land at Kharagpur but had to come by road through Jharkhand.
By prohibiting the entry of helicopters, Banerjee has ensured that the leaders could not attend two or more rallies in a day. Politicians hire helicopters, so that they could land at more than one rally in a day. Except Modi, whose movements are beyond the control of the West Bengal government, all had to curtail their visits and go back after giving one address.
But the BJP leaders said they would come back. "Wait for few days. We will stop this tanashahi (high-handedness)," said Arvind Menon, co-minder of the BJP in West Bengal.
Menon said more the central BJP leaders are prevented, more are they going to come. And for facilitating this, BJP workers are ready to give their farmland to give landing space for helicopters carrying leaders.
"In fact, some of them have already done that. We will not stop until we stop Mamata," Menon declared.
