Why is Bengal Still a Mystery to the BJP?

KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ready for an outstanding result from West Bengal in the 2024 General Election. They assumed this would be surprising for the entire nation. But the result of this election, in turn, made BJP, as they lost 6 of their MP seats from Bengal in the previous general election (2019). Their expectations and following results completely prove them wrong.

From the state assembly election to the General election, nowhere did the BJP manage to defeat Trinamool Congress and Supremo Mamata Bandyopadhyay. The electronic, and print media outlets were presenting each news against the TMC. Every other day CBI and ED chargeshits were coming against TMC heavyweight leaders. Corruptions included Jobs, ration, Plastic Tripal, and Coal..not a single object was free from TMC leaders’ interference.

But even the most adverse conditions for TMC and the fruitful situation of BJP couldn’t divert the minds of Bengalis. Incidents like Sandeshkhali (later found to be a conspiracy made by the BJP) couldn’t stain the reputation of Mamata Banerjee and the trust of TMC. The 2021 BJP rally made everyone believe that the BJP has set its precedent to be elected in West Bengal. But the election result stunned each political personnel as TMC reached a record number of votes by having 213 seats among 242 which was higher than the previous ones.

Now, the million-bone question is why it’s hard for the BJP to win in Bengal. To claw into the answer, we need to examine and dissect several aspects of Bengal and its morality. Though BJP loses colorful seats each over the country. But, Bengal has a special significance for its 42 seats and the Muslim population girding the state.

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Why Simple Calculations Fail in Bengal?

i. Cultural Ethos

As we imagine it’s easy to win here as Muslims have primary dominance (30% as of 2021) in the state and TMC supremo is being found to appease the minority population in the state. Be it Muslims, SCs, STs, OBCs, or any other minorities. BJP made a very easy calculation that even if 30% to 40% of people support TMC, the remaining 60%-70% vote share will be prescribed for BJP only. The rest numbers aren’t a small factor.

And this is where BJP leaders in West Bengal miscarry their calculations miserably. Minority votes will indeed be designated towards TMC only but here the Hindus don’t like the politicalization of BJP vis a vis religion, castes, or temples which don’t even have a far-fetched relationship with votebank issues in West Bengal.

Caste or Religion was never a heavy-stormed issue in Bengal. Bengal is known for its universal brotherhood regardless of its multifaceted conundrum of identities. Here Hindus and Muslims live amicably and they don’t care about identity politics. What they care about is that if their daily needs are fulfilled or not.

Bengalis worship Rabindranath Tagore and Kaji Nazrul Islam because of their contribution to Bengali art, culture, and literature. As their Birth ceremonies are close to each other, we usually fix a date in between and celebrate, discuss their arts, sing songs written by them, and play their novels at school and area functions.

Thus castes or religion never played the dominant role in its history. If Subhas Chandra Bose, Masterda Surya Sen, Benoy Basu, Nalini Bagchi, Kalpana Dutta, and Pritilata Waddeddar were Hindu, then Begum Rokeya, Ibrahim Chatuli, A.K. Fazlul Huq, Sirajul Huq, Razia Khatun Choudhurani, and Aruna Asaf Ali ( By birth Hindu, later married to a Muslim) were Muslim freedom fighters irrespective of its religion, gender caste or creeds who took important parts in the freedom movement along with each others.

Thus, confusing West Bengal with other parts of the country is a big mistake. Gujarat model or UP model (though UP understood the assignment) will not work in Bengali culture at all. Most of the Bengalis don’t like North Indian rhetoric in their soils. Apart from that, misogynistic comments on the WB chief minister or specifically the Hindu fundamentalist ideologies don’t work here at all. Including all of that the cultural practices, food practices, and ideologies of Swami Vivekananda are constantly mocked and molded for their self-interests.

ii. The Strength of the TMC Regime

The first and foremost reason behind TMC’s success is its strong local-level organizations. Mamata Banerjee declared her Lok-Sabha candidates long before the BJP or other parties including CPIM. It was already a win-win situation for TMC even before the election results. When local leaders are aware of who their candidate is it is easy for them to run the campaign before everyone. The grassroots-level local leaders in collaboration with the candidates started their work long before other parties.

Another plus point is the welfare schemes by TMC. What perhaps spearheaded TMC’s effort to keep the BJP at bay are the women-centric schemes that ensured a large number of women voter turnout. The schemes were aimed at empowering women. The Kanyashree Prakalpa, launched in 2013, is for economically disadvantaged girls aged between 13 and 18 to ensure children are not married off before 18.

After winning the Assembly election in 2021 Mamata launched the most popular Lakshmir Bhandar, providing women with a direct transfer of ₹1000 a month. So a family with three or four women in an economically backward family earns ₹3000 to 4000 a month. This earning benefits the whole family. Women in the reserved categories get ₹1200 a month each. Just before this election, the remuneration was increased from ₹500 and ₹1000 respectively.

The issues presented by the BJP couldn’t become the actual head-turner in West Bengal. Despite several searches, interrogations, and allegations of corruption, the Diamond Harbour TMC candidate and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee won the seat by over seven lakh votes. TMC candidate and most vociferous former MP Mohua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha, won the Krishnanagar seat again by over six lakh votes.

A significant point was stressed that, As part of this propaganda, the Trinamool pointed to withholding funds for MGNREGS over allegations of irregularities. The BJP counter that it would only increase payouts for the welfare schemes could not blunt the Trinamool campaign.

The down-to-earth campaign style of Mamata Banerjee, and her choice of candidates, even when they were outsiders, all appealed to the people’s sense of identity and empowerment. All of this ended up having 29 seats out of 42. The victories were hard-fought and well-deserved.