Kolkata 5 Dec: With the BJP losing the crucial, recent concluded by-election at Karimpur in Nadia, Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj Assembly in Uttar Dinajpur, the state wing of the party has now decided to go a door-to-door campaign in various districts and speak to the people of a locality to understand their pulse.
Three observers of West Bengal BJP will visit the three districts where by-polls were held recently and they will speak to the locals. They will prepare a report based on the current situation and measures that need to be taken for increasing the vote share.
Sources in the state BJP said that the recent by election has been an eye-opener and they are going to make an all-out attempt to know what exactly led to the sharp polarisation in Hindu votes. “After analysing the vote results, we found that the Congress and the Left votes have been divided and it was shared between the BJP and the TMC . The Congress –Left combined votes failed to make any significant change in the voter’s mind and they have remained in the third position.
A senior BJP leader said: “Our Karyakartas will visit each and every household and will speak with each member of the family to know their problems. The Karyakartas will also gauge how they have been misled on the National Register of Citzens(NRC) implementation issue.”
Senior BJP leaders said that after speaking with the workers in various districts, they have come to know that people are being misled by TMC supporters on the NRC issue . It was also decided that after the Citizenship Amendment Bill is passed in the Parliament, the Karyakartas will visit each house in the district and will brief the people on the merits of the Bill.
Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president, said: “We have already started our extensive door-door campaign to know more about the voters’ pulse . We will again change our strategy when we receive report from the observers who are working on the ground where by-poll was held recently.”
On the other hand, Trinamool Congress also said that people are panicked after hearing that NRC will be implemented all over India. They are also affected with the rise in price of onion and the economic slowdown.”
Partha Chatterjee, state parliamentary affairs minister, said: “The BJP can change various political strategies to increase their vote bank. But the majority has understood that the BJP is trying to divide the people. The minds of the people are reflected in the results of the by-polls.”
According to Trinamool Congress , the Citizenship Amendment Bill that was introduced in the Parliament will led to sharp divide between various communities and we will continue our protest and will not allow NRC to be implemented in all the states.
The contentious Bill that seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslims immigrants facing persecution in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan is likely to be tabled next week.
Sougata Roy TMC MP said ” We will not support the Bill if the Bill is tabled next week. We have seen the Bill and it is dangerous in the long term as it will try to divide the people on the basis of religion.”
Comparison of vote share of all political parties with regard to 2016 Assembly election
Kaliaganj : This year in Kaliaganj, which is originally a Congress bastion, the TMC won 97,428 votes while the BJP received 95,014 votes and the Congress-Left alliance had to be satisfied with 18,857 votes. In 2016 Assembly election, TMC had received 66,256 votes , BJP secured 27,252 and the Congress Left alliance won the seat which received 1,12868 votes.
Kharagpur : At Kharagpur, where BJP lost to TMC securing only 52,000 votes, in 2016 Assembly election the party had got 61,000 votes. The seat was vacated by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh when he contested for the Lok Sabha election. Meanwhile, the TMC won the seat in the bypoll nearly doubling their figure to 73,000. In Kharagpur, the CPI-M-Congress combine received 15,000 votes in this by-poll, whereas in the 2016 Assembly election they had received 55,000 votes.
Karimpur : Originally a TMC bastion, but this year TMC received 1,0,3278 votes while the BJP received 79368 votes.