BJP builds political pressure in West Bengal as Trinamool talks I.N.D.I.A

While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee was away in Bengaluru for the Opposition meeting, a BJP fact-finding committee on the post-poll violence against women made field visits in the state.

The committee, comprising five women MPs, is the second team formed and sent to Bengal by BJP president JP Nadda, and has Saroj Pandey, convenor, Rama Devi, Aparajita Sarangi, Kavita Patidar, and Sandhya Ray, as members. Earlier Ravi Shankar Prasad, party’s MP had also made a visit to the state to assess the effect of violence during the rural polls.

Read | Bengal poll violence unacceptable

The BJP leadership, at the national and regional level, has continued with intense – at times appearing jittery – attacks, to keep the ruling Trinamool under pressure. Two leaders, recently, claimed that the Trinamool government will not last beyond 5-6 months. The state leaders have also triggered conversation around imposition of Article 355 of the Constitutions.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, referred to Bengal’s violent polls, and apparent silence of the Congress, and the Left leaders on the issue, with their party workers pleading for being saved, the regional leadership, too, has attacked the Opposition meeting, attended by the Trinamool Congress leaders.

“Opportunistic coalition ignoring the dead bodies of the workers who laid down their lives in order to resist the tyranny of the ruling party of Bengal during panchayat elections. Many injured workers are still receiving treatment in hospitals. What reasons would these leaders provide them in order to pacify them? I feel pity for the Congress & CPM workers. Their leaders have backstabbed them,” Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition in the state assembly stated in a tweet.

“In 2024 India will reject:- Incompetent Nefarious Dynastic Immoral Alliance. Phir Ekbar Modi Sarkar,” Adhikari taunted in a late-evening tweet after the Opposition parties declared a name for their alliance. 

Not only the BJP, a regional Congress leader too reminded the party of the loss. “Rahul Gandhiji, eight Congress workers have been killed by the Trinamool Congress in the state of West Bengal in the recently concluded panchayat elections. Am not going into the past facts and figures of their oppression and tyranny in the state. We are the workers of the Indian National Congress in the state of West Bengal and yes, WE DO EXIST,” Koustav Bagchi, Congress leader, posted on facebook.

CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim, meanwhile, countered the meeting of 38 parties convened by the BJP, saying that these were mostly breakaway groups.