Kolkata: The subsequent chief minister of West Bengal will likely be from the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), Union dwelling minister Amit Shah declared Friday whereas interesting to voters within the state to provide the social gathering 35 of 42 Lok Sabha seats within the 2024 basic election.
Shah reached West Bengal Friday, 24 hours forward of the Bengali new yr, to launch BJP’s renewed push after the social gathering didn’t dislodge the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) within the 2021 meeting elections.
To start his two-day tour to the state, he picked Bengal’s Birbhum district, which the BJP couldn’t wrest from the ruling TMC both within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls or 2021 Meeting polls — with the only real exception of Dubrajpur meeting seat in 2021.
Recognized to be a TMC stronghold, Birbhum has been beneath the clout of TMC strongman and the social gathering’s district president Anubrata Mandal who’s now lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in connection along with his alleged position in a cross-border cattle smuggling nexus.
Addressing a public rally in Birbhum Friday, Shah made an try to spice up the morale of the social gathering cadres by setting a goal of 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. “Give us 35 seats in 2024, Mamata Banerjee authorities received’t final in 2025. Mamata Banerjee needs to make her nephew the chief minister, however the subsequent CM will likely be from BJP,” mentioned Shah.
The BJP received 18 seats in Bengal within the 2019 Lok Sabha polls — the very best for the reason that social gathering made its electoral debut within the state. Its tally of MPs from the state dropped to 17 after Babul Supriyo’s exit and subsequent entry into the TMC.
In his speech, Shah took intention at CM Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, whereas relating the theme of regulation and order within the state. “How can Ram Navami rally not be peaceable? That is the results of TMC’s appeasement politics,” he mentioned, raking up the communal violence that broke out in Howrah and Hooghly districts final month.
“Didi and bhatija (Mamata and Abhishek) are partaking in crime and the one different is BJP. Would you like (cross-border) infiltration in Bengal? The one strategy to cease it’s to decide on the BJP. The BJP stopped cattle smuggling,” mentioned Shah, referring to Mandal’s alleged ties to a cross-border cattle-smuggling nexus.
The TMC, however, reacted by accusing Shah of misusing central businesses to focus on the Mamata-led social gathering after it didn’t kind a authorities in Bengal within the wake of the 2021 meeting elections.
“What about funds to Bengal? He (Shah) was speaking about corruption and sharing the dais with Suvendu Adhikari who was caught on digicam taking cash within the Narada sting operation,” mentioned state minister Shashi Panja.
Panja additional termed Shah a “seasonal chicken” who visits the state solely earlier than elections.
Each the TMC and the BJP are gearing up for the West Bengal Panchayat polls, which would be the subsequent take a look at of their political prowess.
Kolkata-based Political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay informed ThePrint, “The BJP is aware of Panchayat polls received’t yield desired outcomes. Therefore, it’s higher to focus on Lok Sabha when there may be time. With Anubrata Mondal out of the image, the TMC will battle a bit, however solely time will inform if BJP can use this as a chance to defeat TMC in Birbhum.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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