A general surge in favour of the BJP, particularly in the four parliamentary constituencies of Darjeeling, Asansol, Krishnagar and Dumdum, is behind Monday’s exchange of vitriol between Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Close observers of the election scene in the State opine that the BJP has a good chance of winning these seats, a fact not liked by the Trinamool Congress leader who has been escalating her attacks on the party’s Prime Ministerial contender despite his feelers to her and to West Bengal that he would head a fair-minded regime at the Centre. In response to these overtures, the leaders of the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa and both the leading parties in Tamil Nadu have avoided direct attacks upon the BJP.
The BJP veteran was campaigning, amongst others, for the Srirampur (Bappi Lahiri) and Hooghly (Chandan Mitra) seats, where the party is putting up a good fight. Should these seats fall in the BJP kitty, Narendra Modi will be on a roll. The rising groundswell in favour of the BJP, particularly after the BJP veteran conveyed to the West Bengal voters via the Anand Bazar Patrika that there has been no material improvement in the State even after the massive mandate given for ‘poribortan’ two years ago.
Responding to reports from the grassroots, the BJP veteran began frequenting the State, a fact which irritated the Chief Minister. As she escalated her attacks on Narendra Modi personally, he landed on her turf on Monday and ripped her off over the price of her paintings to chit fund company owners and the illegal immigrants padding her vote-bank. Observers say that the BJP’s vote share will rise to 15 per cent in 2014, going by the results of recent panchayat and municipality elections.
In Darjeeling, the BJP’s SS Ahluwalia was regarded by poll trackers as way ahead of Sujay Ghatak (Congress), Bhai Chung Bhutia (Trinamool) and Kakali Majumdar (BSP). This was considered the one sure seat for the BJP. Ahluwalia, who is being backed by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), is slated to win by a handsome margin as the BJP has a good base here with Jaswant Singh having won the seat in 2009 by a margin of over two lakh votes; he polled roughly 53.52 per cent of the votes.
At that time, the CPI (M) and Left Front took second place with 26.28 per cent of the votes. The Congress-Trinamool contested jointly in 2009, and managed a joint vote share of 20.19 per cent. This time, however, the Trinamool Congress is likely to improve its performance in the Darjeeling hills as it is wooing the hill people and may corner a good slice of the Lepcha vote, besides getting support from the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF). But the BJP-GJM lead seems difficult to beat in a four-way contest.
In Asansol, the BJP candidate is the popular playback singer, Babul Supriyo, of Kaho Naa Pyar Hai fame. He has worked hard to give the party an edge against former minister Bangsagopal Choudhury (CPI-M) and trade union leader Dola Sen (Trinamool). Babul has reached out to voters with rare energy, forcing Mamata Banerjee to hold as many as five public meetings in the constituency to appeal to people not to vote for the BJP and support her close confidant Dola Sen.
Attempts to derail Supriyo began as soon as he was seen to be making a dent in the constituency, from the false allegation of drunk campaigning to the current charge under the Arms Act (allegedly a member of his entourage was illegally carrying arms). Supriyo surrendered before a local court on Tuesday and secured bail in a criminal case regarding his blockade of National Highway 60 on April 12 to protest against an attack on a party procession allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters. Asansol votes on May 7 and party sources say Narendra Modi will return to canvass support on May 4, which will also boost the BJP prospects in Dum Dum and Krishnagar which vote on May 12.
In Dumdum, two-time MP Tapan Sikdar (BJP) is pitted against Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and is perceived as ahead in the race. In Krishnagar, former minister and lawyer Satyabrate Mookherjee (BJP), who previously won in 1999, is seen as a winner in a four-cornered contest plus the ‘Modi factor’. In 2009, when Trinamool Congress (actor Tapas Pal) won, Mookherjee polled 16.7 per cent of the votes.
With stakes so high for the BJP, it is little wonder that Narendra Modi tore into the Chief Minister with a sledgehammer, asking why anyone would pay lakhs of rupees for a work of art by a non-artist. Although he made a small slip when he said that she was paid Rupees 1.80 crore for a single painting, he meant that cumulatively the Trinamool Congress was raking in money by this route. It may be emphasised that the Chief Minister did not make any personal gains from the paintings, but the moot question is whether this was a back door route to accepting money from corporates/business houses.
The Trinamool Congress and the Chief Minister have been prickly about charges of close proximity to chit fund companies, particularly the Saradha Group, which have taken money from poor investors. The Saradha CMD Sudipta Sen is reputed to have purchased several of Mamata Banerjee’s paintings for amounts close to Rupees two crore.
According to the affidavit filed by the Trinamool Congress with the Election Commission, the party earned nearly Rs 6.47 crore from the sale of Mamata Banerjee’s paintings in the past two years. As per documents accessed by The Indian Express, the balance sheets submitted to the Election Commission show that her paintings fetched Rs 2.53 crore in 2012-2013 and around Rs 3.94 crore the previous year, but nothing in 2010-2011, when Trinamool Congress was not in power.
To add to Mamata Banerjee’s discomfort, the Congress state unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has jumped on the bandwagon and alleged that chit fund company owners and unscrupulous industrialists paid huge sums for the Chief Minister’s paintings. “We demand that the list of buyers be put up on the public domain,” he said. The BJP state president Rahul Sinha called it a method to legalise black money, a sentiment echoed by CPI (M) leader Mohammad Selim, “More than anything, they are painting black money into white.”
Niticentral.com, 30 April 2014
http://www.niticentral.com/2014/04/30/bjp-surge-behind-modi-mamata-face-off-218071.html