Powerful addresses by PM Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jagat Prakash Nadda have energised Bengal BJP leaders who were feeling demoralised after the violence and less than expected performance in the recently concluded Panchayat polls.
Party president Nadda was on a three-day visit to Bengal and engaged with the party’s leaders at the Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in Howrah (Kolkata) to take stock of the organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls while the Prime Minister addressed them in the online mode.
In his virtual address to the BJP’s Panchayati Raj Parishad, the Prime Minister criticised the TMC for using “terror and threats” to intimidate the Opposition in the State during the rural polls held last month while acting as “champions of democracy”. Alleging that the “ruling TMC let loose a reign of terror” during the rural polls, Modi said people of the State had blessed BJP candidates despite threats. “Panchayat elections were held in Bengal recently. The entire country saw TMC’s ‘khooni khel’. Violence has been used as a means to threaten the Opposition. The ‘tolabaz’ army of TMC looted votes. This is TMC’s politics. But despite this, the love of the people of Bengal has led to the victory of BJP candidates,” he said.
Modi also claimed that those who act as champions of democracy and question EVMs at the drop of a hat had undermined the democratic process in Bengal. “The TMC did everything to ensure that the BJP candidates couldn’t file nomination papers. They threatened not only BJP workers but also the voters. On the day of the election, the goons of the TMC didn’t allow people to vote. “The TMC gave out contracts to capture the booths. This is their way of doing politics in the State. While counting the votes, the TMC forced BJP’s counting agents out and ran away with ballot boxes,” he said. Criticising the TMC-led Government, Modi highlighted the ongoing struggle of BJP workers in the State and said even if the BJP candidates managed to win, “they had to face violence”. Those present at the meeting included the West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, BJP West Bengal in-charge Mangal Pandey and all the important functionaries of the party. In this meeting, 134 presidents and vice-presidents of Zilla Parishad of West Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and North Eastern States were present. JP Nadda held a series of meetings and asked the party leaders to strengthen the booth-level organisation ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He also asked the party leaders to reach out to the people with the development works undertaken by the Centre, and “expose the misrule” of the TMC Government. “Nadda-ji took stock of the party’s organisational strength. He went through the reports of the party’s panchayat poll performance, and enquired about the drop in vote share in places where we had performed well in the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly polls,” a BJP leader who was present at all the deliberations, said.
In his address, Nadda compared the violence during rural polls to the turmoil of Partition. He also claimed that TMC supremo and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee portrays herself as a champion of democracy, while “undermining” it.
Mocking the TMC over the arrest of its leaders in corruption cases by Central agencies, Nadda said: “The entire party is neck-deep in corruption. So many senior party leaders like Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mandal have been put behind bars. Mamata Banerjee asks for evidence. The day is not far away when the cabinet meeting will be held in jail,” Nadda said. “The violence and killings we witnessed during the panchayat polls are unprecedented. Is this a reflection of democracy? Is this how elections are being held under the TMC Government? We have witnessed post-poll violence after the 2021 Assembly polls. But the violence we witnessed during the rural polls resembled the bloody days of Partition here,” he said. While asserting that BJP would democratically defeat the Trinamool Congress in the days to come, he said despite the Trinamool’s terror tactics, the BJP had come up with a good performance in the rural polls.
