The BJP activated its entire Bengal unit and a set of its top national leaders to counter the Trinamool Congress’s narrative of depriving the State of Central funds on a day Mamata Banerjee’s party hit the streets of the national capital against the Narendra Modi Government on the matter.
On Tuesday morning, BJP MLAs headed by the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, sat on a dharna in the Bengal Assembly and hit the streets of Calcutta hours before Adhikari rushed to Delhi to meet the Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti who pushed back her meeting with Trinamool leaders to accommodate the appointment of the BJP’s Leader of the Opposition.
Yesterday, State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, along with three senior leaders, flew to Delhi to counter Trinamool’s narrative with the charge of corruption and the claim of an increase in the allocation of funds by the Narendra Modi Government for Bengal compared to the erstwhile UPA regime.
Majumdar, accompanied by senior leaders Locket Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Mahato, held a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Delhi and took the same line as Adhikari to attack the Mamata Banerjee Government.
Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh and Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur also held news conferences in Bihar’s Begusarai and New Delhi, respectively, to mount an attack on Bengal’s ruling dispensation.
“Trinamool is trying to pitch its narrative over our allegation of corruption. Our goal is to remind the people of Bengal of the overall corruption that took place in Bengal starting from anomalies in Central schemes, including the MGNREGA, and the recruitment of teachers.
If Trinamool became successful in spreading the narrative of deprivation in the rural belt, it would be a tough battle for the BJP to bag targeted seats in the State,” said a BJP leader in Calcutta.
Political observers in Bengal also believed that the Trinamool’s narrative would give the party political dividends before the Lok Sabha polls next year over the BJP’s narrative of corruption.
“Politics depends on the perception that is built up by relentless campaigning among the people. As the Opposition parties, including the BJP, had a poor organisation at the grassroots, Trinamool would be able to reach out to a larger community with its narrative of deprivation easily and it would help Trinamool in the Lok Sabha polls 2024,” said political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty.
“Trinamool leaders looted thousands of crores of different Central Government funds starting from the MGNREGA to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. They prepared a list of fake benefits and ate up the money that was sent for the benefit of the poor. Our fight is to ensure the punishment of those involved in corruption with the central funds. We demand a CBI probe in this connection to arrest all Trinamool leaders and Government officials associated with the anomalies,” Adhikari said at the Assembly. He alleged that the embezzled Central funds would be approximately Rs 13,000 crore.