Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who wrapped up his two-day visit to West Bengal recently, is learnt to have conveyed in clear terms to the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that the fight against the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is political, and one that needs to be led by the state unit and not the Centre, sources privy to the developments told Financial Express Online. Shah’s remarks, which came during a closed-door meeting with BJP leaders including party MPs and MLAs, appeared to be specifically aimed at asking the stumbling party unit to pull up its socks and gear up to take the fight to the TMC.
Shah’s remarks came in the backdrop of repeated demands for imposing President’s rule in the state in view of rising incidents of political violence and killings allegedly aimed at BJP workers, besides calls for probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the cases lodged against TMC leaders. This was Shah’s first visit to the state following the party’s loss in the 2021 assembly elections.
Speaking to Financial Express Online, party leaders said Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal was aimed at boosting the morale of the state workers and strengthening the party from the grassroots level ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and the 2026 assembly elections. Shah told the leaders that they will have to carry on the fight without any expectation despite the state machinery against them. Shah also told the state party leaders that BJP will win the next state election in West Bengal with a two-thirds majority.
However, a top BJP leader refuted reports suggesting that Shah had frowned upon demands to impose President’s rule in the state and the expedition of CBI cases in the state. “These four words such as Article 355, Article 356, Enforcement Directorate and CBI were not even uttered in the closed door meeting. However, Shah said that we will have to carry on with our organisational activities regardless of the adverse political situations and against a hostile state machinery.”
“The BJP officially never wanted to impose President’s rule in the state. We had only said that the time is ripe for the custodian of constitution to intervene due to the complete breakdown of constitutional machinery. The only person who officially wanted Article 355 in the state was Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” the leader added while maintaining that they had brought up the issue of police excesses such as not filing of FIRs and the breakdown of law and order.
On Friday, Shah’s visit was marred by the hanging of a BJP youth leader Arjun Chowrasia, who was organising a bike rally in Kolkata to welcome the Home minister a night before his death. Soon after, all ceremonies planned to welcome Shah were cancelled as both the Bengal BJP unit and Chowrasia’s family alleged that he was murdered and called it another case of political violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress. Shah visited the family of the deceased and called for a CBI probe while asking the Bengal government a detailed report of his death.
BJP Bengal spokesperson and former MLA Samik Bhattacharya told Financial Express Online that Shah had urged the BJP leaders in the state not to bow down to political violence and keep on working to strengthen the organisational roots in the state. In a bid to encourage the BJP workers, Shah asked them to draw inspiration from his own political struggle. “From spending two years in exile to spending time in jail, I have suffered several blows, but the then Congress government at the Centre could never break my spirit,” Shah told BJP leaders, according to Bhattacharya.
The BJP spokesperson, citing the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) “Law of ruler, not rule of law” report on political violence tabled before the Calcutta High Court last year, alleged that BJP workers are being targeted by the state machinery at block levels. “If they’re taking out protests on road, the cops either make them join TMC forcibly or if they refuse, the police file cases against them. On other occasions, they either end up getting murdered or their livelihoods snatched,” he said.
This was Shah’s first visit to Bengal after the party’s 2021 electoral debacle. On asking why no prominent leader from the central BJP leadership had visited the state, a top BJP leader, who was also present at the closed door meeting, a BJP source said, ” Amit Shah wanted to respect the people’s mandate. But, after one year when he visited he said that the TMC hasn’t changed a bit — in fact, things have taken a turn for the worse with atrocities increasing across the state. Shah said that the fight to establish law and order will now strengthen and he will visit more frequently.”
On Shah’s visit, BJP MLA and Bengal spokesperson Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury told Financial Express Online that he interacted with leaders sitting in the audience and gave them a patient hearing, while thanking each one of them for being part of the political struggle in Bengal. “Amit Shah ji encouraged partymen to continue their political journey for the sake of peace, non-violence and in nation’s interest. He said sacrifices of young souls like Arjun Chaurasia shall be remembered by the nation,” said Chaudhury.
After the state assembly results, many TMC top leaders who had earlier jumped ship to join BJP like Mukul Roy and Sabyasachi Dutta, rejoined their old party. Following this, the party has been in a free fall in the state facing stiff challenges from other opposition parties like the Congress and the CPI(M) in the recently concluded civic body polls.
However, many in the BJP believe that cases of such leaders rejoining TMC may not be a bad thing for the party after all. “Style and body language of people who have come from TMC will not match ours. While some have adjusted, the others came with the mindset of creating internal division, getting a party ticket and carrying on with the loot by merely changing camps. With all these leaders like Mukul Roy gone, the BJP has been strengthened, especially in those particular constituencies and the faith of the ground level workers restored,” a party leader told Financial Express on condition of anonymity.