Rath Yatras have been a very popular mode of campaigning for BJP since Lal Krishna Advani’s highly successful Ram Rath Yatra of the 1990s which put the saffron party on the national map of India for the first time. In West Bengal, where the saffron party is trying to make a mark in the assembly election for the first time, it has launched a five-phase Rath Yatra called the “Parivartan Yatra”. The statewide camping through the Parivartan Yatra scared the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and the party tried to create many obstacles through the legal and administrative processes.
However, after the saffron party got a green signal for the yatra from the court and is successfully running its campaign ahead of the polls in the state. To counter BJP’s campaign, Prashant Kishor – the strategist for TMC, has decided to launch TMC’s own campaign called ‘Didir Doot,’ which will be led by Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
TMC’ campaign vehicle, ‘Didir Doot’ [Didi’s Messenger], that was flagged off by Trinamool Congress MP from Diamond Harbour Abhishek Banerjee during his rally in Sonarpur, will be used by various leaders across the state. Moreover, to compete with the saffron party, TMC launched the ‘Didir Doot’ app against Modipara (meaning Modi’s neighbourhood).
Previously Mamata Banerjee had attacked BJP’s Rath Yatra at an election rally, and said, “These outsiders, five-star babus roaming in big vehicles, who do not live in Bengal, are busy doing photo op at poor households with food from five-star hotels. What they show is not cooked there, they get food from five-star hotel. Are these people pro-poor?”
However, the TMC strategist Prashant Kishor decided to launch a similar app and campaign to counter the saffron party. The rallies and roadshows being held by BJP leaders including President Nadda in Bengal are drawing a sea of people, who are frustrated with the ruling TMC government and are desperately wanting a fresh government for their state.
And then, West Bengal is not just any other state for the BJP. It is such a state where the karyakartas of the party have laid down their lives and have been harassed. BJP President JP Nadda on Saturday said that he himself had conducted the ‘tarpan’ ceremony for 100 slain BJP workers and supporters. The BJP President kicked off the ‘Parivartan Yatra’ on Saturday from Nabadwip in Nadia district, the birthplace of 15th-century saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Amit Shah is personally monitoring BJP’s election campaign for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. He has prepared a 23 point to-do list on every booth level unit to ensure BJP’s victory in the upcoming assembly election. The list includes tasks such as recruitment of people from SC, ST, and OBC communities from every booth and form committees in every area depending on the social configuration.
Since the early 2010s, BJP has been tirelessly working, especially in the OBC and ST dominated areas of West Bengal. Dilip Ghosh, who comes from the Sadgop caste of the Jungle Mahal region-one of the backward regions of West Bengal, was appointed as the President of West Bengal BJP in 2015.
Except for the ‘intellectual class’ of the Bhadralok community, the entire Hindu population of West Bengal, especially the lower caste people who constitute the majority but never enjoyed power due to overwhelming domination of the Bhadralok community in Left and TMC, have rallied behind the saffron party.
The entire election machinery prepared by Amit Shah in the last few years has been activated for West Bengal as BJP is optimistic about gaining power in the state for the first time in the 2021 Assembly Elections. However, it will be interesting to see what gains TMC would make from the recent campaign strategised by Prashant Kishor and being led by ‘Bua’s boy’ Abhishek Banerjee.