Amid the beginning of the Durga Puja, the most popular festival in West Bengal, from Monday, top state leadership of the BJP, especially the party’s state president, Samik Bhattacharya, is busy with two crucial organisational assignments
The first assignment is completing the formation of the new state committee of the party, and the second is preparing the initial blueprint for a full-fledged counter-narrative strategy against Trinamool Congress’s ongoing state-wide campaigns on the twin issues of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal and the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.
“The central leadership wants the state leadership to complete the formation of the new state committee and announce the same immediately after the festive season, and if possible during the interim period between the end of Durga Puja this week and Diwali on October 18, so that the new state committee can start full-fledged preparation for the crucial next year from the month end. So the top state leader, including the state president, is busy giving final touches to the list,” said a current state committee member of the BJP, who refused to be named.
Similarly, he added, considering that Trinamool Congress has already started its full-fledged campaign both on the special intensive revision as well as the Bengali-harassment, the central leader of the BJP had felt the necessity of starting a full-fledged counter-narrative at the earliest.
“Although our state leaders have given explanatory statements from time to time against both these issues, there is a necessity to start a full-fledged counter-narrative campaign at the grassroots level on both these issues. Hence, our state leaders are also busy giving final touches to the blueprint for the same,” the state committee member added.
Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress has described the special intensive revision as a ploy to slap the NRC in the state. On the other hand, the BJP has described this stand of the state’s ruling party as a ploy to protect the illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators who have managed to get their names enlisted in the voter list in West Bengal.
As regards countering the Trinamool Congress’s narrative on Bengali harassment in BJP-ruled states in West Bengal, the BJP is planning to highlight how the industrial backwardness in West Bengal in the current regime has forced lakhs of Bengali-speaking workers from the state to migrate to other states for better livelihood.
