It is now crystal clear that the Assembly election in West Bengal in 2021 is going to be one of the toughest tussles in the political history of India. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly determined to replace the ruling party, All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) in West Bengal. On the other side, AITMC is also equally ready to shield their 10 years’ reign.
But why Narendra Modi and Amit Shah only targeting West Bengal?
‘ Mamata Banerjee is the only regional leader who is a formidable rival for the BJP and West Bengal is a frontier that BJP wants to conquer. This is why Amit Shah and other party leaders have visited the state so many times ‘-said Sekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of The Print.
Religion plays a vital role here. It is not only a fight between two political parties but also a contest between the aggressive Hindutva craze of BJP and AITMC which is popular as close to Muslim Communal politics.
India is a well-known secular country. Moreover, in West Bengal Hindus and Muslims live together in harmony. The biggest issue of BJP would be their aggressive Hinduism agenda in West Bengal.
On the other side, after the Singur-Nandigram case, Mamata Banerjee has created an image of development. There are many schemes such as Kanyashree or distribution of cycle to the students, distribution of rice at a lower price, etc. have been launched by AITMC. Although there are several ideological conversion took place in AITMC, Mamata Banerjee has established herself as an image of secularism.
In contrast, Suvendu Adhikari, a heavyweight candidate from AITMC recently joined BJP. It can assume that this incident will have a strong impact on the 2021 election.
If we look back, in 2011 BJP was capable to gain seats in the state. The party contested 289 of the 294 votes but ended up with a vote share of 4.06 percent.
In 2016, BJP contested 291 out of 294 seats, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party was able to capture 18 seats of 42 in the state.
“The BJP has worked doggedly over the last ten years and increased its vote share by ten times.’ Said Sekhar Gupta.
In 2011, AITMC displaced Left Front which had been in power for 34 years. However, the question remains whether it will change again the ruling party once again in 2021.
In the end, we can say whatever the result will be, the government should keep an eye on the election center so that there is violence over the vote. State and Central both are interlinked. So, the clash between state and central ruling party should not affect the state-central connection even after the declaration of result.
Written By Saswati Chattopadhyay.