BJP will treat Bengal’s 2020 civic polls as a mini general election: Mukul Roy

Former Trinamool leader Mukul Roy tells ThePrint BJP is finalising campaigners for civic polls, which the party believes will set the stage for overthrow of Mamata govt.

File photo of BJP leader Mukul Roy| @MukulR_Official/ Twitter

New Delhi: Municipal polls are the next stage of the BJP’s Mission Bengal that will be completed with the overthrowing of the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021 assembly elections, Mukul Roy, a key BJP strategist who was a Trinamool Congress member, told ThePrint.

National BJP leaders will campaign in the civic polls in West Bengal, which are scheduled to be held in February next year. The party is also seeking to engineer defections in Trinamool Congress-held civic bodies to undermine its influence at the grassroots level.

The BJP had won 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, giving a big jolt to the ruling Trinamool Congress which is headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Roy, one of the architects of the BJP’s good show in Bengal, said the party will treat next year’s civic elections as a “mini general election”.

“For us, even a municipal election is as important as the assembly elections and we have already started preparing for it. We are targeting a win in all 144 seats in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation as well as other corporation polls in Siliguri, Asansol, Howrah, among others,” he added.

A list of national leaders who will be campaigning for the civic polls will be finalised soon, he said. Roy, along with BJP national general secretary and its West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, have been camping in the state every alternate week to fine-tune its poll strategy.

The party, however, is apprehensive if the Banerjee-led state government will allow a “free and fair poll”.

“After all, the state election commission will hold the civic polls. So far, the CM has not uttered a word on holding the local body polls which is due in February,” Roy said.

Many state BJP leaders have also expressed apprehension that the civic polls may end up like the 2018 panchayat elections during which widespread violence had resulted in 34 per cent of the gram panchayat seats going uncontested.

More defections?

Even though 40 Trinamool Congress MLAs did not join the BJP, as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April, Roy said several members of the state’s ruling party were in touch with him now and want to jump ship.

“They are holding back because of the anti-defection law. But we will see more defections soon, including some at the zila parishad level — the lowest tier of local government,” Roy said.

Till now, over 15 corporators and 14 MLAs have joined the saffron party. These include Roy’s son, Subhranghsu, who joined the BJP last month after being suspended by the Trinamool Congress for six years for anti-party activities.

‘Mamata unwilling to accept peoples’ mandate’

Roy also said the recent violence in Bhatpara is an indication of how the CM has refused to accept the people’s mandate. BJP’s Arjun Singh had won the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat, under which Bhatpara assembly segment falls, by over 14,000 votes.

“Even in a by-election to the Bhatpara assembly seat, BJP’s Pawan Kumar Singh had won by over 23,000 votes,” Roy said.

Refuting charges made by Trinamool Congress members that the BJP is fanning violence in the state, Roy instead blamed the ruling party for the current situation. “There is no reason for the BJP to indulge in violence,” he said.

The state government, he said, has failed in every respect, including delivery of welfare schemes. “The chief minister is telling people to not pay heed to her own party members who have been asking money from people in order to hand over government benefits. Can you imagine a CM openly admitting such a thing?” Roy asked.

He also ruled out that the BJP has been demanding imposition of President’s rule in the state. “We are not asking for it. We will not let Banerjee become a martyr.”