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‘Mamata a cocktail of adharmis’ — BJP brings Delhi Twitter warriors to Bengal for campaign

BJP has brought in Kapil Mishra and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga to strengthen its social media campaign in 35 urban centres in Bengal. On Friday, the two held a session in Kolkata.

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Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought in two of its most popular Twitter warriors, Kapil Mishra and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who are known for caustic rhetoric against opponents, to campaign in West Bengal as the BJP’s battle with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) intensifies ahead of the assembly elections.

On Friday, the two leaders — who contested and lost the 2020 Delhi assembly polls — addressed a gathering of the party’s social media volunteers at a programme titled ‘Rosogolla pe Charcha’ in south Kolkata.

Criticising TMC’s ten-year rule in the state, Mishra called Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a “cocktail” of two “Adharmi” (atheist) rulers — “Congress and Communists”. He called her a blend of “Putana and Surpanaka” (demons mentioned in Hindu epics), who has been “pulling Bengal down” systematically and destroying its culture, education, spiritualism and tradition.

“Like a demon, she is afraid of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chants. Ram worshipped Devi before reaching Lanka. Everyone in Bengal worships Devi Durga and Kali, which means all Bengalis are Ram. Hating Ram naam means hating Bengal,” Mishra said amid loud cheer.

In the run up to Delhi elections, Mishra had made a series of similarly controversial remarks, comparing the election to an India-Pakistan cricket match, and tweeting that Pakistan was entering India via Shaheen Bagh and mini-Pakistans are being created in Delhi.

On Friday, he was introduced at the event as a “magician of social media” by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Party sources said he has been assigned to create a “positive perception” about BJP’s surge in the state.

Speaking to ThePrint, Mishra said he has been travelling to urban and semi-urban centres in Bengal since last week to strengthen social media units, adding that he would stay in the state until the elections are over.

On his turn, Bagga said, “Bengal created the concept of Bharat mata. In the past four decades, successive governments never mentioned her. Don’t you feel angry about it? We need to end this.”

Bagga’s claim to fame is making polarised comments. On the Delhi election results day, he warned of a “surgical strike” against the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh. He also started a campaign in January 2020 to boycott Bollywood star Deepika Padukone’s movies after she visited the Jawaharlal Nehru University in light of the mob violence on the campus.


Also read: Netaji planning commission, Netaji police battalion — Mamata’s poll-year budget is big on Bose


‘Not change, but transformation’

Addressing the volunteers at the programme, Mishra said Bengal’s 2021 polls is one of the most crucial elections for the country’s future.

“The results of the Bengal election will decide, how the country will run and what do the people want. Do they want to preach their God peacefully, do they want to see the country progressing and do they want their religion to exist? All answers will come from the results of the Bengal election,” he said.

Referring to the TMC’s 2011 slogan of ‘Poribartan’ (change), the former AAP leader said this election is not about change but transformation. “This is not parivartan, but rupantar,” he said.

He said he and Bagga have reached the state to “coach” the youth of Bengal, and work as their “cheerleader for good batting”.

Mishra urged the volunteers to form WhatsApp groups to be in touch with each other and start campaigning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP at all the important centres in the city.

“We will give you Modi Para t-shirts and caps we have to meet at localities and convince people about what good BJP can do for the state. I and Bagga will join you in such programmes. We have to roam around malls, markets and other important places in the city wearing such t-shirts,” he said.

“We will all wear Modi t-shirts while travelling in metro rail or local suburban trains. It will help people change their perception and remove all confusion. They need to see that saffron winds have started blowing in Bengal,” he added.


Also read: Why talks of a ‘secular front’ against BJP & Trinamool have hit a wall in Bengal


Why ‘Rosogolla Pe Charcha’

While BJP’s public outreach programme is commonly called ‘Chai Pe Charcha’, the Friday session was titled ‘Rosogolla Pe Charcha’, in reference to Bengal’s most popular sweet, which also symbolises a zero.

“In 2019 (Lok Sabha elections), we won 18 seats of 33 non-urban seats. In the last phase, that included all urban and semi-urban centres, we got Rosogolla (zero). We have a solid rural connection, but we still need a good mileage in the city and other urban centres. If we cannot do well in Kolkata, how will we win Bengal?” said BJP’s Bengal IT cell chief Ujjwal Parekh.

“So we are here to discuss Rosogolla today, which means the urban centres,” he said.

The BJP has connected to at least 2.5 crore people in rural Bengal through Facebook and at least 90 per cent of total polling booths in the state were connected through multiple WhatsApp groups, he added.


Also read: BJP urges EC to give central observers final say over deployment of forces in Bengal polls


 

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