The Bharatiya Janata Party’s general secretary and chief spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, tells Gyan Varma there is space for his party in West Bengal. Edited excerpts:
The BJP slipped from a five per cent vote in 2001 to just 1.9 per cent in 2006 in West Bengal. What makes you hopeful the party will gain this time?
We were close to 11 per cent in 1991. Given that BJP is a major player and the performance of BJP and NDA-ruled governments in nine states, the people of West Bengal are looking towards BJP as an option. I don’t dispute we are a minor player in the state for now but we are set to make a powerful presence.
Your record in Bengal clearly shows your success depended on Mamata Banerjee. With her leaving you alone, how do you plan for the future?
Mamata Banerjee broke ties with us in 2001. Had she been part of the alliance, who knows, she could have been chief minister of West Bengal in the 2001 assembly election itself! The larger issue here is the intellectual and cultural history of West Bengal that gives space to do good work and allows us to take forward the legacy of Swami Vivekanand, Aurobindo Ghosh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, besides other cultural influences. There is a big space in West Bengal beyond the Left parties and Mamata Banerjee.
The elections are taking place after the issue of corruption has taken centrestage in national politics. Will the issue have a major impact?
Yes, corruption is an important issue and it will have a big impact in the West Bengal elections. The people are fed up of the misrule and suppression of democracy by the CPI(M) and its cadre. The politics of Mamata Banerjee is increasingly becoming a mirror image of CPI(M) politics and many of these elements have shifted loyalties in the course of the election.
The record of CPI(M) is dismal in terms of development, growth and industrialisation and it has almost corroded the soul of West Bengal. But the record of Mamata Banerjee also doesn’t inspire. There 58 railway projects announced for West Bengal but not even one has taken off. The health of the railways is too well known. We are highlighting these issues and we hope people will help create space for us.
Mamata recently accused the BJP of entering into a nexus with CPI(M) to split votes of the Congress-Trinamool alliance.
She’s in the UPA, so in national politics, she has worked with the Left. That BJP is in nexus with Left parties is baseless. We are campaigning for the third pole of Bengal politics. We are sure that people will respond to us.
Among the five places where elections are being held, the BJP is not a major political force except in Assam. What are your expectations?
I agree but there is a hope that BJP will make an important presence in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. In Assam, we are sure there will be a non-Congress government. In all these elections, the palpable anger against the Congress and its allies and the Left Front in West Bengal is very clear, because of lack of development and corruption.