The main contest is Trinamool vs BJP, no stone is left unturned in preparation from both the sides, for leftist parties and Congress it is just a fight to save existence and relevance.
The most exciting contest during these elections is going to take place in West Bengal. In the East, this state is standing as a major obstacle in front of BJP’s election victory. The political landscape of the state has completely changed since Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011 after the end of three decades of Left rule. There has been a tremendous change in the politics of the state with BJP emerging as the main opposition party in the state after not winning a single seat in 2011. Its form and equations have completely changed. Left parties and Congress, which were once the main forces in the state, are now fighting for their existence and relevance. Now the main contest remains between two parties, Trinamool Congress and BJP.
Both these major parties are going to field candidates on 294 assembly seats. The strategy of both of them is to cross the majority mark (148 seats). In the 2021 elections, Trinamool had achieved a landslide victory by winning 215 seats. BJP had won 77 seats and ISF had won one seat. Even the accounts of Congress and CPI(M) could not be opened. For the first time both of them failed to win even a single seat. The 2021 elections brought a radical change in the strategy and structure of the opposition parties, completely changing the political landscape of Bengal. This situation was in sharp contrast to the 2016 elections, when Trinamool had won 211 seats, Congress had won 44 seats, CPI(M) had won 26 seats, while BJP could win only 3 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Subhendu Adhikari in Kolkata
Of course, the main contest will be between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of Opposition Subhendu Adhikari. This time Shubhendu is contesting from two seats. Apart from his traditional Nandigram seat, he is going to challenge Mamata Banerjee from Bhawanipur seat in Kolkata. This is a scene of BJP’s aggression and a contrast to the last time, when Mamata had gone to Nandigram to challenge Subhendu and lost by a very narrow margin.
But in these elections, there are many such faces who are taking charge of the campaign in the field. Top Trinamool leaders Firhad Hakim, Bratya Basu, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Arup Rai, Sujit Bose and Shashi Panja will face BJP’s Shankar Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Lahiri, Neeraj Tamang Zimba and others. Trinamool general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee, and new BJP president Samik Bhattacharya are also playing a key role in carrying forward the election campaign and strategies.
Major election issues
SIR and Election Commission: In the last few months, Mamata Banerjee has emerged as the most vocal and strong voice against the ‘Special Intensive Review’ (SIR) campaign of the Election Commission. His sustained attacks on the Commission and the aggressiveness with which he raised the party’s concerns regarding the campaign made headlines and became a topic of discussion among the people. She even reached the Supreme Court to present her arguments against it. Even after the intervention of the Supreme Court, the situation of SIR is complicated, because about 60 lakh people have been put in the doubtful list and are waiting for the decision to add their names in the voter list. Before the elections, SIR has emerged as a main issue for Mamata Banerjee and her party.
Not only this, immediately after the announcement of the election dates (voting in two phases on April 23 and 29 and results on May 4), the Commission immediately transferred more than 50 officers including the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General of Police, Kolkata Police Commissioner and DMs and SPs of all the districts. Mamta is also taking this to task for making the Election Commission a field for BJP. Trinamool leaders are also raising questions that such transfers were not made by the Commission in Assam, which makes it clear that the Commission is following the agenda of BJP. Just a few days before that, the Center changed the Governor there and brought in RN Ravi, whose tenure in Tamil Nadu has been quite controversial. Mamta is making all this an issue against BJP, this is showing how desperate BJP is to win at any cost.
Welfare Schemes: Mamata Banerjee’s welfare schemes have played an important role in strengthening her core vote bank in the last few years, especially among women and minority communities. The state government announced the new ‘Yuva Sathi Yojana’ and increase in the amount of ‘Lakshmi Bhandar’ in the recently presented interim budget. After that, BJP has also taken the help of Central schemes and some new promises. During his recent visits to Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about the Centre’s welfare schemes and cited the BJP’s vision of employment generation, public welfare and overall development.
Infiltration: Infiltration has always been the main issue for BJP. Top party leaders have reiterated that they want to clean up the voter list and rid the state of illegal infiltrators—especially Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh. BJP wants to make an issue of the threat of illegal infiltration and the resulting change in demography of the state. The Prime Minister is reiterating the talk of giving citizenship to the Matua community in Bengal through CAA, but till now its specific benefits have not been visible in the form of documents. Trinamool is calling it a gimmick and divisive policy of BJP.
Women’s Issues: Mamata Banerjee has been continuously emphasizing on giving priority to women in Trinamool’s manifestos and policies for the last several years. The result of this is that Trinamool’s women participation in Parliament is more than 40 percent. Yet cases like the RG Kar Hospital rape case, and the South Kolkata Law College rape case have raised serious questions over the safety of women in the state. BJP has kept women’s safety at the center of its election promises. BJP has also fielded the families of rape victims, especially through RG, in the elections. On the other hand, Trinamool has described BJP as a ‘fundamentally anti-women’ party, citing similar incidents in other parts of the country.
cultural identity
Trinamool has consistently described the BJP as an ‘outsider party’ and has been opposing BJP’s attempts to appropriate the culture and symbols of Bengal as its own. Mamata and Trinamool leaders say that the idea of nationalism in Bengal under the leadership of Rabindranath Tagore and Subhash Bose is completely opposite to the ‘Hindutva’ of the BJP. However, in the recent speeches of BJP leaders, there is a lot of mention of Bengali freedom fighters, artists and icons. Party leaders have promised to refurbish the cultural milieu of Bengal and its rich heritage. However, the fight is interesting and whoever wins is going to have a historic impact not only on Bengal but also on the politics of the country.
