To shield Modi from party's certain defeat in Bengal, BJP remembers its women power

Wiser after Bihar debacle, Modi to address a mere seven public meetings in the state

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wiser after its experience in Bihar assembly polls, had decided not to ‘overexpose’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its lead campaigner for the forthcoming assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam.

For Bengal, where its principal rival is state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP is planning to turn to its women leaders. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani are slated to address more public meetings than the PM. This will be in some contrast to the BJP’s Bihar election campaign in October 2015. Modi was his party’s lead campaigner in Bihar, addressing over 30 public rallies.
 

Party strategists for the two states have been holding several meetings to chalk out BJP’s election strategy for Assam and Bengal. The two states are scheduled to go to polls between the first week of April and first week of May. According to party sources, the PM will hold a maximum of 7 to 10 public meetings for the elections to the 294-seat Bengal assembly, likely to take place over six phases. Similarly, Shah, who had addressed over 50 public meetings in Bihar, is unlikely to repeat the performance in Bengal. Even hoardings put up across Bihar, at least initially, had huge pictures of Modi and Shah. This will also be avoided in Bengal and Assam.

BJP believes it needs to invest in shaping its future leadership in Bengal. Seats of its key faces in Bengal – actors Rupa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Chandra Bose and upcoming Bengal unit leaders Ritesh Tiwari and Shamik Bhattacharya – is likely to be announced by February 20.

Party leaders said the reason for fewer Modi-Shah public rallies was primarily “language”. They claimed Bengal has fewer people in rural areas who understand Hindi. They said Irani speaks fluent Bengali, while the Bengal unit of BJP has especially requested for Swaraj to address several public rallies given her popularity in the state.

As for Assam, the BJP has already announced its chief ministerial face in state party chief and union minister Sarbananda Sonowal. This is a rarity in recent times. Of the six assembly elections that have taken place since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party had announced its chief ministerial candidate only in Delhi.

The BJP has already started its social media campaign for the two state polls. “Our campaign will definitely highlight the poor law and order and absence of basic democratic rights in the five years of Trinamool Congress rule. But the campaign will primarily be positive. We will highlight the schemes our government at the Centre has launched for farmers and youth,” BJP’s co-incharge for Bengal Sidharth Nath Singh said.

For its social media campaign, the party is targeting Bengal’s 10 million smart phone users. Bengal has an electorate of 60 million. According to data available with the BJP, the state has 37 million mobile phone users.