The Congress-Left Alliance In West Bengal Will Benefit The BJP
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2020-12-28 07:14:34
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
There is little doubt that the Congress and the Left parties are spent forces in West Bengal and have been pushed to irrelevance as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) seeks to consolidate its position and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes deep inroads into its citadel. Hence, when they announced an alliance to contest the ensuing state elections together, there was not much enthusiasm in the political circles.
The state elections in 2021 are going to be a no-holds-barred fight between the ruling TMC and the BJP. The BJP is buoyed as it did very well, both in terms of vote percentage and the number of seats won, in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Since then, it has managed to create divisions in the TMC and has snared many top and middle level leaders from the party. It has also beefed up its infrastructure in the state and repeated visits by party president JP Nadda and Amit Shah have created enthusiasm among the the party cadre who are now sensing a huge turnaround which can be translated into a victory in the final reckoning.
The TMC, on the other hand, is not much worried about the deserters as it has been riding on the immense popularity of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The party has also appointed political consultant Prashant Kishore as the campaign manager (which has raised hackles in some quarters) to take on a resurgent BJP. The state government has also rolled out many people-friendly initiatives (like Duare Sarkar, or the government at the doorstep, which seek to deliver welfare schemes directly to the people) which have raised its image. But the desertions will obviously hurt and the party will have to think of firefighting measures in a few districts.
In such a scenario, the coming together of the Congress and the Left will benefit the BJP because the secular vote will get divided. People in the state are worried about the NRC and the CAA (as witnessed in the rush to lay hands on documents that prove residential status) and both the TMC and the Congress- Left alliance will play on these fears. In that case, votes of those who do not wish to vote for the BJP will get split and the BJP is likely to benefit. The Congress-Left alliance is not likely to make any impression apart from a few areas of influence, although such areas are also fast vanishing.
