By Haider Abbas
The drubbing which national ruling party BJP got at the hands of TMC third time CM Mamta Banjerjee, on the May 2, after West Bengal (WB) assembly elections is still in its continuation mode, as the downward slide in BJP is going on unabated. WB has seen some great political turnarounds since BJP face Mukul Roy has rejoined TMC on June 11, which has literally triggered a virtual exodus in BJP to join TMC. Roy also rejected his Z-plus security back to Center. BJP has fallen flat on its face. It wasn’t that late when in 2019 Mukul Roy was considered to have led 18/42 MPs for BJP in WB and is now sitting with TMC along with his son! BJP wanted to win this TMC bastion at every cost but ended-up in a soup owing to its divisionist politics.
The news streaming right now from WB is that Suvendu Adhikari, the WB BJP leader went on to meet WB Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on June 15, but out of this team of 74 MLAs-there were 24 who have given a miss! To make the situation further ridiculous is that Adhikari had met PM Modi and HM Amit Shah only the last week and had taken their directives but could not garner the required enthusiasm and his own flock gave him a slip. Now, Adhikari is contemplating to invoke anti-defection law as rumors of a massive migration of BJP MLAs towards TMC are more than rife. The proverbial ‘Khela’ is completely on.
There is now an open speculation that BJP MLAs might find refuge inside TMC and officially BJP has not as yet reacted to the absence of its 24 MLAs, which obviously has given more grist to the possibility of BJP MLAs going for a TMC embrace. It may be known that BJP had won 77/294 MLAs and two of them had resigned as they were parliamentarians too, that made BJP left with the number 75, and those, who represented before Governor were 51, hence, it can easily be guessed that those who had left were from Mukul Roy’s faction. The BJP oriented Governor has also in the meanwhile made a reference about ‘anti-defection law in place’ but then do not we remember how easily HM Amit Shah was inducting TMC MLAs into BJP fold before the polls. Wasn’t Governor into some self-contrived forgetfulness then?
The event is may be just waiting to happen as within three weeks a TMC turncoat Sonali Guha had sought to return to TMC and regretted to have joined BJP. She is said to have stated “ the way a fish cannot stay out of the water, I will not be able to live without you, Didi (Mamta Banerjee).” No wonder there is now a movement from inside BJP towards a re-induction drive into TMC , as News24 reported on June 15, that around 50 BJP workers, including BJP MLAs and leaders, sat on a dharna after which they were granted ghar-wapsi! No one must have experienced such an unprecedented event that MLAs and leaders staging a dharna for a comeback, and that too, from the ruling party at Center.
The BJP Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari personally seems to be in bad waters as Calcutta High Court on June 15, allowed for a probe in Suvendu ‘theft’ case. The Court ‘turned down the prayer of the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who had sought quashing of an FIR drawn up by Contai police accusing him and four others, including his brother Soumendu, of stealing tarpaulins from the civic body’s godown on May 29. Justice Tirthankar Ghosh also declined to issue an interim stay on an inquiry into the alleged theft. So now, if they want, investigators can take any punitive step, including issuing arrest orders, against the Adhikari brothers, ’reported The Telegraph.
Only a day earlier on June 14, according to TOI, Suvendu Adhikari two aides Arman Bhola and Arunava Kuity were arrested with two-country made firearms and one semi-automatic firearm along with seven live cartridges from Haldia, and have been sent to police custody for 11 days. The big question is why were such firearms with Adhikari’s aides? Was there some big conspiracy to send the state into tumult? Where were such arms to be used? Do we remember as to how BJP had been engaged into making allegations against TMC involved in political violence and how fake pictures and videos were used by BJP to make TMC look responsible for violence, and which, all later turned out to be fluke.
It is ironic that BJP despite being a national party had no face in WB and co-opted Mithun Chakravarty, a cinema star which ended in a disaster and thereafter took to Suvendu Adhikari who was once with TMC and today Adhikari has put BJP credibility into jeopardy as now a theft case is to be probed against him and the arrest of his aides with live firearms might lead Adhikari as well as BJP into a bad shape in the coming days. The ‘khela’ is now in TMC court as Mukul Roy is making everything to further reduce the BJP tally. It won’t be out of place, considering the pace with which the wind is blowing towards TMC, that BJP might be reduced to be in single figure if not its 2016 tally which was just 3 seats!
The developments from WB are being watched very closely in UP as UP is expected to go to polls by early next year and BJP is in serious leadership crisis as Narendra Modi and UP CM Ajay Singh Bisht ratings have gone into a beating particularly after the disastrous handling of COVID-19 in which millions of Indians are said to have perished. There have been reports that around 250 MLAs in UP had given a signed document to UP BJP In-charge Radha Mohan Singh airing their ‘reservations’ about UP CM which made him shuttle between Lucknow and New Delhi. How BJP is to fare in the coming polls is for the time to see but one thing for sure is the rise of an icon of Mamta Banerjee and there is now a dominant view that she might take-on Narendra Modi from Benarus in 2024 but that is still too distant to imagine.
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The writer is a former State Information Commissioner, India and a political analyst.
Dreams should be reasonable. Views and imaginations can go far. Bottom line fact is Hindus are now aware to use their vote appropriately. We don’t care who stands but we will vote only for BJP. We have no Hindu nation to fall back. We know it very very clearly.