Kolkata, Mar 15 (PTI) Aggression and novelty in poll campaigns have remained the hallmarks of West Bengal elections. We take a look at the issues that are likely to occupy the campaign centre stage for political parties across the board.
Bengali sub-nationalism: Before the SIR exercise acquired political centre stage in Bengal, the TMC aggressively campaigned, both on the streets as well as in judicial corridors and parliament, against alleged coordinated attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants across BJP-ruled states.
The tried and tested ‘Bohiragoto’ (outsider) plank against the BJP has worked well in the past few elections for the TMC. The issue of Bengali sub-nationalism in the context of migrant persecution is an extension of its previous attempts to isolate the saffron brigade from Bengal’s political landscape and carve a niche for itself with claims of being the vanguard of Bengali ‘asmita’.
In July last year, CM Mamata Banerjee led a major rally in Kolkata against what the TMC described as the BJP’s “assault on Bengali identity”. She has remained consistent in lashing out at the BJP following instances of alleged torture, detention and deportation of Bengal’s migrants across the country on suspicion of being Bangladeshis.
The TMC spearheaded legal battles at Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court against alleged deportations of Bengali-speaking Indians and found limited success in bringing back those deportees. The repatriation of Sunali Bibi, one of the six deported residents, and her minor son is a case in point.
Matua factor: The Matuas, an SC Hindu refugee community with decisive influence in around 50 assembly seats across Bengal, have emerged as a key electoral bloc. In the 2021 assembly elections, a majority of these seats went to the BJP, helping the party secure 77 seats, with the support base largely holding during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as well.
The large-scale deletion of names during the SIR unsettled voters in Matua-majority belts, reopening anxieties over identity, documentation and electoral inclusion among the community members who migrated from present-day Bangladesh over decades.
Urban anger / anti incumbency: When Rimjhim Sinha, a Kolkata-based Sociology researcher, called for ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement on social media following the rape and murder of the medical intern at RG Kar Hospital in 2024, little did she know that her message would spread like wildfire, igniting the simmering discontent among the cross section of urban women, youth and even senior citizens against the state’s ruling establishments.
What followed in urban and semi-urban pockets of Bengal were spontaneous on-street protests which lasted for months. The movement demanded justice for the victim, workplace safety reforms and rights of women to occupy public spaces at night. The outpour of anger, directed mainly against TMC’s stranglehold on Bengal’s state-run institutions, was unprecedented.
Though the state’s main political opposition was kept outside the protest domain by agitators, TMC faced challenging times in containing the social resistance from taking political form.
With setbacks in corruption cases, a crisis persisting in the state’s job sector, failure to attract big-ticket investments and plug brain drain, Banerjee faces her biggest anti-incumbency challenge.
Industry and employment: The opposition BJP alleged “flight of industry” and branded the state an “industrial graveyard”. Party leaders claim that more than 6,000 companies have shifted out of Bengal during the past 14 years and argue that only around 3 per cent of investment proposals from the state business summit have materialised, turning the state into a “labour-exporting economy”.
The TMC counters this claim by projecting a “Bengal model” centred on MSME expansion, infrastructure push and relatively lower unemployment. It cites an unemployment rate of about 3.6 per cent, below the national average, and points to a projected GSDP growth of around 12 per cent, higher than the national average, as evidence of strong economic momentum.
The crisis in the jute belt districts like Hooghly, Howrah and North 24 Parganas, where raw material shortages resulted in the closure of mills and production curtailment, job losses became a key factor.
Social welfare schemes: A slew of social welfare schemes by the TMC government could play a pivotal role in the elections. The initiatives aiming at unemployed youth, women, farmers, students, workers and marginalised communities brought rich dividends in past elections and may influence the outcome of the upcoming polls Several of these schemes involve direct cash transfers and benefits delivered at the grassroots level.
Of the 294-member Bengal assembly, the TMC in 2021 won 215 seats, up four seats from its tally of the 2016 edition of state polls, as against 77 seats won by the BJP, which improved its numbers by 74 seats.
Currently, following multiple defections, resignations and bypolls, the strength of the TMC in the assembly stands at 223 with support of one more MLA from the Darjeeling-based Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha. Suspended TMC leader Partha Chatterjee continues to remain an Independent MLA in the House.
The BJP’s numbers in the state assembly has currently reduced to 64, mostly on account of defections to the TMC. The Indian Secular Front and the newly formed Aam Janata Unnayan Party occupy one seat each. Three seats in the house remain vacant on account of deaths of the sitting MLAs. PTI SMY PNT BSM SUS NN MNB
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