Kolkata: All party workers didn’t “join the fight” against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, former state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Dilip Ghosh has said on why the BJP failed to repeat its 2019 Lok Sabha elections performance in the state and instead lost more ground to the ruling party.
The BJP, Ghosh told the media a day after the results, had lost momentum.
“Till 2021 we surged, we fought, many party workers were martyred, left homeless, homes were broken, there was family infighting while working for BJP. We had to sacrifice 250 workers to have 18 MPs and 77 MLAs elected but for whatever reason, our growth has stopped there. Our vote share has remained the same, that is what we gained in 2021,” he said.
He went on to say the BJP has not been able to “move forward” in the state in the past 3-4 years and it is something “to worry about”.
“The speed at which we were moving forward was spoken about in the country, (party) workers were motivated; we hoped that even this time, but we had gaps. All the workers didn’t join the fight, we need to think about these factors. The progress shouldn’t stop,” said Ghosh, who was replaced by Sukanta Majumdar as West Bengal BJP president in 2021.
This time around, the party moved Ghosh from Medinipur — which elected him to the assembly and later to Parliament — to Bardhaman–Durgapur. He lost to TMC leader and former cricketer Kirti Azad by 1.37 lakh votes.
Asked about his post election assessment, Ghosh told reporters that Bardhaman–Durgapur was a “tough seat” and a “lost seat”.
“There were no gaps in our hard work; rest depended on factors like leadership, environment, and policies which led to these results. Those who suggested them, will now think. I visited Andamans, so I know Kalapani even if no one else does. It isn’t impossible in politics. Conspiracy, backbiting is part of politics. I worked hard but it didn’t yield results,” he said.
Bardhaman–Durgapur was one of eight Lok Sabha seats BJP won in 2019 but could not retain this time around. Though it retained 10 seats it won in 2019 and wrested two more from the TMC, its overall Lok Sabha tally in West Bengal fell to 12 from 18 in the previous general election.
The TMC’s Lok Sabha vote share in the state stood at 45.7 percent — an increase of two percentage points from 2019 — while that of the BJP slid by two percentage points to 38.73 percent. The BJP had secured 37.9 percent of the total votes polled in the state in the 2021 assembly elections.
Senior leaders of the West Bengal BJP will be in New Delhi Friday to meet the central leadership to map out a plan of action.
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‘BJP expected 20 seats’ — what went wrong
In West Bengal, the contest remained neck and neck in several seats as counting progressed.
Of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Bishnupur registered the narrowest margin of victory with incumbent BJP MP Saumitra Khan defeating his ex-wife and TMC candidate Sujata Mondal by a margin of 5,567 votes.
In 2019, voters in five seats that fall in an erstwhile Maoist belt also known as “jungle mahal” elected BJP MPs to the Lok Sabha. These were Medinipur, Jhargram, Bankura, Bishnupur and Purulia. But TMC managed to wrest three of those seats back this time. Barring the seat of Coochbehar where Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik lost to Jagadish Basunia of the TMC, the BJP retained its foothold in northern Bengal.
According to a senior state BJP leader who didn’t want to be named, the party had expected to cross the 20-seat mark.
“We are disappointed. In at least 4-5 seats we lost due to choice of candidate. There was no logic in shifting sitting Medinipur MP Dilip Ghosh to Bardhaman–Durgapur, Kharagpur MLA Hiran Chatterjee which falls under this seat to Ghatal, bringing Agnimitra Paul from Asansol to Medinipur.”
The leader also added that the BJP was counting on the Left-Congress alliance in West Bengal to split TMC’s Muslim votes but that too failed.
“The alliance’s performance was worse than before. Muslims unitedly voted against BJP and in favour of TMC. We had expected the Left-CPI(M) to split TMC votes but that too was a miscalculation,” said the leader.
What stood out prominently in BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal was the issue of alleged atrocities against women in Sandeshkhali. The BJP accused ruling TMC of remaining a mute spectator while its party workers unleashed mayhem on villagers. It fielded a woman from Sandeshkhali from Basirhat seat which comprises 60 percent Muslims.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too invoked claims about alleged atrocities in Sandeshkhali in public meetings, but the BJP could not reap any significant electoral dividends from the issue.
“Sandeshkhali was our Waterloo moment, but TMC completely turned around the narrative with a so-called ‘sting operation’. With Abhishek Banerjee leading the fight for TMC, BJP failed to understand that Sandeshkhali wasn’t going to do it for us. It was rather strange how such an important issue was strategically sidelined by TMC,” said the BJP leader quoted earlier.
According to BJP’s internal data cited by a state party leader who spoke to ThePrint, TMC secured about 2.75 crore Hindu votes in the state while the BJP secured about 2.33 crore.
Another reason the BJP’s expansion plans in the state did not pan out as expected was that people in large parts of West Bengal rejected polarisation along communal lines.
“Ram is not a natural God for Bengalis, it is Maa Durga, Maa Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati. We need to unshackle this Jai Shri Ram slogan here in Bengal that is taken almost as the BJP party slogan. Ram Mandir failed to consolidate Hindu votes for us here even if the consecration was celebrated in full fervour,” said another senior state BJP leader.
According to former BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose, the BJP failed to understand Bengali “asmita” since its rise in the state. “People of our great nation have given a clear message to political parties and leaders not to indulge in divisive, communal politics for electoral gain. Our Constitution reads ‘we are a sovereign, socialist, democratic, secular republic’.”
He added that the BJP’s communal agenda cost the party heavily.
“West Bengal is secular and liberal state, pitching Hindus and Muslims against each other doesn’t work here but BJP has failed to understand that. But more importantly, BJP instead of highlighting what it could mean for Bengal if they elected representatives here, only concentrated on attacking the CM who is popular and seen as a fighter. Jobs, industries, connectivity, national schemes, BJP didn’t highlight any of these in their campaign. They have not understood the soil of Bengal,” said Bose.
What has stayed the same for the BJP since the 2021 assembly elections is its organisational limitations in the state.
Speaking to ThePrint, political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay said, “The BJP not only lacks organisational strength at the booth level, but also united leadership in Bengal. While on one hand the central funds have been blocked by the party’s central government, the state government has been financially supporting the common man constantly and the voters clearly understood that as TMC highlighted it strongly at every sabha.”
A third state BJP leader told ThePrint that party leaders are openly saying that the central government blocking MGNREGA funds meant for West Bengal impacted the party’s prospects in the state.
“You cannot stand in a rally and shout out that you have blocked money that belongs to the poor. Instead of a solution, leaders proudly exclaimed that Bengal will not get funds, almost a threat, this too had an impact on our results,” said the leader.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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