In the 2021 West Bengal assembly election, BJP posted its best-ever performance with 77 seats and a 38.1 per cent vote share. However, the karyakartas of BJP were disappointed because, given their hard work and anti-incumbency, they expected a handsome victory.
The biggest loss for the saffron party came from the turncoat leaders, very few of whom could score a victory. Apart from a few big names like giant killer Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, most of the turncoats lost the election. As per a report by Aajtak, 16 of the TMC leaders who switched over to BJP before the election lost the assembly seat.
“We never expected such a result. The feedback and the response which we were getting from people were telling something different. But we accept this result and now will play the role of a constructive opposition,” said party president of West Bengal Unit, Dilip Ghosh, who is credited with the surge of the party in the state in the last few years and historic performance in the 2019 general election in the state.
On the question of many TMC turncoats losing elections, Ghosh said, “It seems people didn’t accept those who switched to the BJP from the TMC.”
Moreover, out of the four Member of the Parliaments whom BJP had fielded for the assembly election – Swapan Dasgupta from Tarkeshwar seat, Babul Supriyo from Tollygunge seat, Locket Chatterjee from Chuchura seat, Nisith Pramanik from Dinhata seat – all except Pramanik lost.
This shows that there was much more anti-incumbency against the individual candidates than the CM of the state, Mamata Banerjee. Prashant Kishore very cleverly carried out an overhaul and weeded out the unpopular incumbents from TMC and gave tickets to young grassroot workers. Most of these leaders who did not get TMC tickets switched to BJP and the saffron party gave them tickets because it had very little organisational structure especially in Kolkata city and Northern areas of the state.
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These turncoats lost the seats given the anti-incumbency. Moreover, many of the dedicated BJP voters did not vote for these turncoats because they were unhappy with the fact that one of their own did not get the ticket while a newcomer who has a name and money but is corrupt and has been associated with TMC for more than decades got the ticket.
BJP needs to introspect on these factors because its voter base is very sensitive towards issues like corruption, ideology, clear image etc. On the other hand, opposition parties which win elections by appeasing particular castes and religious groups, do not need to care about these factors because to the majority of their voters, these are not important factors.
The party needs to build an organizational structure with the help of RSS, especially in urban areas like Kolkata and Kolkata suburban districts which have a large number of constituencies and where it performed very badly. The turncoats hardly benefit BJP, especially if they are from regional parties (interestingly though, Congress turncoats benefit the saffron party). Therefore, the party leadership must not include the corrupt leaders of regional parties because it results in a net loss.