BJP Mobilizes Its Entire Bengal Branch to Counter Trinamul's Protest in Delhi

On the same day that Mamata Banerjee's party took to the streets of the nation's capital to protest the Narendra Modi administration over the issue, the BJP mobilized its entire Bengal branch and a number of its senior national officials on Monday.

Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition, and other BJP MLAs staged a dharna in the Bengal Assembly before taking to the streets of Calcutta. Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, traveled to Delhi with three other senior leaders to refute Trinamul's claims of corruption in the state government and increased funding for Bengal under the Narendra Modi administration compared to the previous UPA administration.

Anurag Thakur, the minister of sports, and Giriraj Singh, the minister of rural development, both held press conferences to criticize the Bengali government, one in Begusarai, Bihar, and the other in New Delhi.

"Trinamul is attempting to bolster its narrative in response to our claim of wrongdoing. Our intention is to raise awareness among Bengalis of the widespread corruption that occurred there, beginning with irregularities in government programs like the MGNREGA and teacher hiring. It would be difficult for the BJP to win the targeted seats in the state if Trinamul was successful in disseminating the story of poverty in the rural areas, according to a BJP senior in Calcutta.

A number of political analysts in Bengal also thought that Trinamul's story will benefit the party politically before the Lok Sabha elections the following year over the BJP's story of corruption.

"Politics is based on public perception, which is created through tenacious campaigning. Trinamul would be able to easily reach out to a bigger community with its narrative of hardship and it would help Trinamul in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 because the Opposition parties, especially the BJP, had poor organization at the grassroots.

"Leaders of the Trinamul plundered thousands of crores from several federal government programs, starting with the MGNREGA and ending with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. They created a list of fictitious benefits and used the money sent to help the impoverished. We are fighting to ensure that anyone using government cash for corrupt purposes will be punished. Adhikari spoke before the Assembly on Monday while the BJP MLAs held a dharna. "We demand a CBI investigation in this connection to arrest all Trinamul leaders and government officials linked to the anomalies," Adhikari said.

He said that around Rs 13,000 crore of government monies had been stolen. Adhikari also participated in a march on Monday in Calcutta, shouting anti-Trinamul slogans before paying respects to the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road. The BJP's women's branch had staged a dharna in front of the statue earlier in the day to protest accusations of corruption and the mistreatment of women in Bengal.

Sukanta Majumdar, the state president of the BJP, spoke at a press conference at the party's headquarters in Delhi alongside senior figures Locket Chatterjee and Jyotirmoy Mahato. She attacked the Mamata Banerjee administration in a similar manner to Adhikari.

Four MLAs who had won on BJP tickets and afterwards joined Trinamul participated in the demonstration at Rajghat on Monday, putting the BJP in a new position of embarrassment among the 600 or so elected Trinamul representatives.

Even the "BJP" MLAs, according to Trinamul, had joined their demonstration.

On BJP tickets, Biswajit Das of North 24-Parganas's Bagda, Tanmoy Ghosh of Bankura's Bishnupur, Suman Kanjilal of Alipurduar, and Krishna Kalyani of North Dinajpur's Raiganj all won the 2021 Assembly elections. However, Biswajit Das afterwards joined Trinamul.

The Center is not the target of this demonstration. "We've come here to fulfill the poor people of Bengal's demand," Krishna Kalyani informed the media.