In what must have sent shivers across the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the entire leftist-liberal cabal, BJP president Amit Shah sounded the poll bugle in West Bengal’s Puluria ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP president who has taken the party to new heights came down heavily on the TMC and exposed it in a scathing attack. Shah stated that the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee “believes only in violence” and that the TMC is full of goondas (goons). This seems to be in reference to the frequent attacks on BJP cadres by the TMC workers.
Amit Shah mounted an assault on the TMC and Mamata Banerjee and in doing so, minced no words. He said that he prays to god to give him the strength to throw the West Bengal chief minister out of power. He added that the TMC workers did not allow voters to cast their vote and he even challenged Mamata that the blood of slain BJP workers will not go in vain.
The BJP president made a direct reference to 2019 elections and urged the people to vote for the BJP. He made it clear that only the BJP can develop the state and that the upcoming elections will decide the future course of the state.
Amit Shah, then, started exposing TMC’s misdeeds which must have shaken the TMC. He came out attacking the TMC and Mamata Banerjee over the recent political killings by Mamata led TMC in Bengal. BJP workers have been the victim of TMC’s brazen violence and hooliganism. While the mainstream media has tried to brush political violence in West Bengal under the carpet, Amit Shah publicly embarrassed the West Bengal chief minister by highlighting the dire state of affairs in the state. During the Purulia rally, the BJP chief said, “more than 65 BJP workers were killed in the violence in Bengal and more than 1,341 workers were injured. Bengal once revelled in the tunes of Rabindra Sangeet… but now, because of TMC goondas, the state has been drowned by sounds of the explosion from bombs lobbed by Mamata’s supporters.” It seems that the BJP has decided to nip TMC and Banerjee in the bud and for this very reason, its top leadership, has gone all out against the TMC. Apart from this, Shah criticized the TMC on a number of issues including illegal immigration from Bangladesh and the ‘dire state of infrastructure’ in the state. He also took a dig at the Mamata government’s inefficiency which has not allowed Modi government’s welfare schemes to reach to the people of West Bengal.
This rally by Amit Shah is critical not only because of its content, but also because of the fact that it has been made in Purulia, which has recently been in news due to the killing of BJP workers in the district after the BJP performed well in Purulia in the recent panchayat elections. 2 BJP workers were killed in four days by the TMC workers including an 18-year old BJP worker, Trilochan Mahato. Along with Mahato’s body that was hung on a tree, a chilling note was found stating that he had been killed because he was associated with the BJP.
One cannot forget how the controversy around the Tata Nano plant in Singur town of West Bengal had propelled Mamata Banerjee to power in the state. The Nandigram firing tragedy happened at just the right time for Mamata Banerjee. She made full political use of the agitations surrounding the land acquisition disputes in the state. Her slogan ‘Ma-Mati-Manush’ proved to be a death blow for the then CPI (M) government. It also helped her in snatching staunch, traditional leftist supporters from the communist party. All of a sudden, Mamata Banerjee hijacked the political narrative of the state. Political and electoral power followed soon after.
However, it seems that her government’s misdeeds and anti-Hindu crimes have crossed all limits. The euphoria that had marked her emergence in the state has faded and Bengal is desperately calling for a change. At such a time, barbaric murder of two BJP workers was nothing less than a political suicide. It seems that just like her emergence, Mamata’s downfall is going to be sudden and surprising. If Nandigram firing/ Singur agitation was the moment that propelled TMC to power, it can be safely said that Purulia killings were BJP’s Nandigram/ Singur moment. It seems that Bengal is going to see a historic change when the state goes to elections.