Barrackpore (West Bengal): The ‘insider-outsider’ politics is heating up in West Bengal as the elections enter the third phase, with the BJP now trying to corner the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) over “insulting” the state’s non-Bengali population.
In the Barrackpore sub-division of North 24 Parganas district, the BJP is playing up Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ‘outsider’ jibe to consolidate the votes of Hindi-speaking people, which constitute 40 per cent of the population there.
The sub-division is one of the epicentres of Hindi-speaking people, which is dotted with jute mills and medium scale industries along Hooghly river where a large number of migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh work.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a rally Thursday in Jayanagar, 60 km from state capital Kolkata, asked Banerjee not to insult the people of Bihar and UP who are living in Bengal.
“You can insult me, take a dig at me, but respect the Indian Constitution by not calling Indian citizens outsiders. Sometimes Didi calls me a tourist, sometimes an outsider. Didi, you call infiltrators as your own, but don’t call children of Bharat Mata as outsiders,” Modi said. Jayanagar will vote in the third phase on 6 April.
Modi’s attack on Banerjee appears to be a calculated move keeping in mind Bengal’s 15 per cent non-Bengali population as the BJP expects them to rally behind the party.
The party is banking on non-Bengali votes in more than 30 constituencies across Asansol, Durgapur, North 24 Parganas, Kharagpur, Howrah and some parts surrounding Kolkata.
The next few phases of the election will be held on seats with a considerable presence of non-Bengali speaking population, with Barrackpore being one of them.
Earlier considered a CPM stronghold, Barrackpore later became a TMC citadel. This time, however, the contest is crucial for the BJP because of the party’s two prized entrants from Trinamool — Mukul Roy and Arjun Singh.
There are seven assembly seats that fall under Barrackpore. Roy’s son Subhranshu is contesting from Bijapur, while Singh’s son Pawan and his brother-in-law Sunil Singh are fighting from Bhatpara and Noapara, respectively.
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Outsider versus Bengali pitch
Senior BJP leaders told ThePrint Banerjee’s outsider pitch is “helping our prospects”.
“They (non-Bengalis) voted for BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. These voters are also influential around Kolkata where BJP is hoping to open an account… In Kolkata, there are a lot of Marwaris and Gujaratis and people from UP, Bihar. They will vote for the BJP. That is the reason we are stressing on Mamata’s outsider jibe,” said a party leader, who didn’t want to be named.
Arjun Singh, BJP MP from Barrackpore, told ThePrint that “people will teach lessons to TMC not just in Barrackpore, but all outsiders are united to vote for the BJP in this election”.
“This will affect the results of more than 30 seats. They thought they would polarise Bengal, but Bengal knows how they have looted Amphan money and institutionalised cut money, which is working against them. They have alienated the non-Bengalis already by pitching the outsider narrative.”
TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, however, told ThePrint the party never differentiated between Bengali and non-Bengali population. “It is the BJP, which is creating differences between the two communities,” he added.
The Trinamool has also been mindful of the non-Bengali votes, with Banerjee two years ago announcing establishment of a Hindi University. Last year, she formalised the structure of the party’s Hindi cell. In 2018, the chief minister for the first time announced two-day holiday for Chhath Puja.
Political experts said Mamata “calculated that outsiders will definitely vote for the BJP”. “So she concentrated on Bengalis. But the problem is that it has to be seen how Bengalis are voting for Mamata,” said Biswanath Chakraborty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University.
“The polarisation will be shriller in the coming days as the election is now shifting to many of the non-Bengali areas,” he added.
Jitendra Singh, a native of Uttar Pradesh who works at a jute factory in Barrackpore, said he would vote for the BJP as they rescued them from TMC “goons”.
“In our state, the BJP has a strong presence and our family voted for the party there. When TMC people beat us here, nobody came to rescue except the local MP, so I will vote for the BJP,” he said.
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Prestige battle for Arjun Singh and Mukul Roy
The Barrackpore battle holds high stakes for Arjun Singh, who defected from the TMC before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and Mukul Roy, who jumped the ship in 2017.
Singh was once Banerjee’s muscle man in the area and election agent of former MP Dinesh Trivedi.
In the 2016 assembly elections, the BJP didn’t win a single assembly seat in Barrackpore.
In Bhatpara, which was Arjun Singh’s constituency where he won four assembly elections, Pawan had won the 2019 bypoll when his father contested for the Lok Sabha polls from Barrackpore. Pawan is now taking on TMC’s Jeetu singh.
In Bijapur, Subhranshu Roy is contesting against TMC’s Subodh Adhikari.
Subhrangshu told ThePrint, “I have never done politics on outsider and insider. I have worked for all communities. They know me as a corporator and as an MLA. Bengalis and non-Bengalis are united to vote for the BJP.”
BJP sources told ThePrint since Barrackpore is a stronghold of Mukul Roy and Arjun Singh, the party has relaxed its rules to accommodate their sons and relatives, who were sitting MLAs.
“There are only two constituencies where there is a problem. One is Barrackpore where the party has given ticket to Chandramani Shukla, father of Manish Shukla, who was earlier the henchman of a CPM leader and later became the henchman for Arjun Singh but was murdered in 2019. Here 70,000 voters are non-Bengali, but 1,30,000 are Bengali voters and 30,000 are Muslim voters, who will vote for the TMC,” said a BJP leader from Barrackpore.
The TMC has given a ticket to filmmaker Raj Chakraborty from Barrackpore.
“Another weak seat for the BJP in this area is Amdanga, where there is 47 per cent Muslim population, who will rally behind TMC,” the leader added.
Barrackpore has been known for its political violence. Two days ago, TMC candidate Chakraborty and BJP’s Subhrangshu got injured in a clash between the two parties’ supporters at the Barrackpore sub-divisional administrative office premises, with bullets being fired and bricks hurled at police.
(Edited by Debalina Dey)
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