The BJP was expected to put up a Bengali candidate against Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur bypoll. But it sprung a surprise by selecting Priyanka Tibrewal, a Bengali-speaking Marwari, born and brought up in Kolkata, from the 10 names given by the state BJP.
The Tibrewal community originally hails from Rajasthan.
TMC sounded upbeat, saying the BJP has given Banerjee a walkover by selecting Tibrewal. The saffron party, however, cautioned the CM against taking her lightly.
The 40-year-old advocate of the Calcutta High Court hails from family of lawyers. She studied in a south Kolkata English medium school and then in Delhi university. She came back to Kolkata to study law in University of Kolkata. Tibrewal also did MBA and began working as a lawyer in the Calcutta High Court. Her first high profile client was BJP MP and former Union minister Babul Supriyo when he was not in politics. He inspired Tibrewal to join BJP and she did in 2014.
With Dilip Ghosh taking up the charge of the Bengal BJP in 2015, Tibrewal was drafted into the youth wing of the party and its legal cell. She was seen in several television channel debates, representing the party. Slowly, she earned her place in the party and became the state vice president of the party’s youth wing in 2020.
Tibrewal was given poll ticket from Entally in 2021 election but was defeated by a whopping 50,000 plus votes. Though a Marwari, Tibrewal understands the pulse of Kolkata well. As post-poll violence raged in the state, 164 BJP workers’ families were forced to leave their houses. Tibrewal was the first lawyer from the BJP’s legal cell who petitioned in the court against the TMC.
“Two women played a key role in our endeavour for justice for raped women,” said a BJP leader in West Bengal. “One is Priyanka Tibrewal and the other is Locket Chatterjee. Both of them protected the identities of the women. Even our other party leaders were not given a chance to meet the victims.”
Chatterjee, an MP, has been appointed co-incharge of the party in Uttarakhand.
A battery of central leaders would campaign for Tibrewal for the September 30 byelection. They include Hardeep Singh Puri, Smriti Irani, Babul Supriyo (who is tipped to end his break from politics) and, of course, almost all state leaders, including Ghosh, Suvendu Adhikari, Dinesh Trivedi, Chatterjee and Swapan Dasgupta.
What is more striking is that John Barla, who demanded a separate north Bengal state, would also campaign. It is not clear whether BJP president J.P. Nadda would come or not as he has not been included as star campaigner.
Tibrewal is geared up for the fight. “What can be the best way to bring these atrocious rulers to justice other than by defeating chief minister? You may consider me a dark horse but I will fight till the last vote is polled,” she said.
It is not the first time that Banerjee is facing a woman in polls. She was once defeated by a woman in 1989 Lok Sabha election, when CPI(M)’s Malini Bhattacharya, an English professor, defeated her.
