Election rigging or poor leadership: Bickering in Bengal BJP after TMC sweeps bypolls
The senior leadership in West Bengal BJP seems to be divided over the reasons for the party's loss in the bypolls.
From potshots at each other to mudslinging, bypolls in West Bengal are over and now its time for politicians to play who blames whom for the loss. The BJP, which registered a massive upswing from two Lok Sabha seats in 2014 to 18 seats in 2019 with around 40% vote share, the bypoll results on Thursday came as a shock. The party lost all three assembly constituencies Kaliaganj, Kharagpur and Karimpur in three parts of the state.
One of these seats, Kharagpur, was vacated by state party president Dilip Ghosh when he was elected as a member of the parliament from the same constituency. But not only did the BJP failed to defend it but lost by a margin of over 20,000 votes.
The senior leadership in West Bengal BJP seems to be divided over the reasons for the party's loss in the bypolls.
Booths were captured: Kailash Vijayvargiya
Senior leader and party's incharge for West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya blamed it the ruling TMC and alleged that the party rigged the elections using state machinery.
"If voting was conducted in a proper and unbiased manner then the BJP would have won but here in Bengal there was capturing of polling booths. The Election Commission had also said that there will be central forces on the ground but that did not happen at the booth level," Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged. He, however, added that the bypolls results were not a precursor to state assembly polls due in 2021.
"Mamata's true colour and face will come out after her mask is removed by the people itself," Vijayvargiya said.
EVMs and counting was rigged: Rahul Sinha
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha further alleged that not just EVMs but elections were rigged.
"The election was supervised by the Election Commission of India. The people, who are working with the Election Commission, are the supporters of the TMC party," Rahul Sinha said.
He also claimed that counting of the vote was also rigged. "Leaving EVM tampering aside, I think that the other type of tampering might be in the vote counting. The state or government officers are the helping hands for the tampering of vote counting," he said.
Sinha claimed that there was no way the TMC could have won without cheating. "We will file an application with EC to seek investigation in tempering in EVMs and counting process," Sinha said.
Poor leadership, wrong causes reasons for loss: Chandra Bose
But there is a faction fo BJP leaders who are questioning the party's course of action in Bengal.
"Priority issues were not taken up. NRC is a non-issue in West Bengal at the present moment. Trinamool Congress took advantage of this and misguided the people on this NRC issue and created a paranoia situation to scare people of the BJP. We should have taken up issues like job creation, co-sector industry investments, farmer's welfare, looking into the failed law and order in the state to effectively counter the TMC. We do not have strong leadership in the state," BJP leader Chandra Bose said.
Party's vote share in assembly constituencies during different elections over the years:
| TMC Party | BJP Party | Left and Congress Party |
| Karimpur 2019 By-poll - 50.43 2019 Lok Sabha - 42.4 2016 Assembly 45.24 Kharagpur 2019 By-poll 47.66 2019 Lok Sabha -29.6 2016 Assembly 21.73 Kaliagunj 2019 By-poll 44.65 2019 Lok Sabha 27.3 2016 Assembly 30.87 | Karimpur 2019 By-poll 38.75 2019 Lok Sabha 35.5 2016 Assembly 11.59 Kharagpur 2019 By-poll 34.02 2019 Lok Sabha 57.2 2016 Assembly 39.29 Kaliagunj 2019 By-poll 43.54 2019 Lok Sabha 52.2 2016 Assembly 12.7 | Karimpur 2019 By-poll 9.09 (with alliance) 2019 Lok Sabha 19.2 (without alliance) 2016 Assembly 37.29 (with alliance) Kharagpur 2019 By-poll 14.8 (with alliance) 2019 Lok Sabha 10.1(without alliance) 2016 Assembly 35.25 (with alliance) Kaliagunj 2019 By-poll 8.65 (with alliance) 2019 Lok Sabha 16.5 (without alliance) 2016 Assembly 52.58 (with alliance) |
West Bengal has written BJP off: Mamata Banerjee
An elated Mamata Banerjee expressed joy on her party's victory in the bypolls and claimed that people of West Bengal had written off the BJP.
Giving credit to her fight against NRC, Mamata Banerjee said, "All the people, including people of several cast, creed and community, came together to cast their vote for us. This is an alliance of people. First of all people voiced that NRC will not be implemented in West Bengal and we don’t want to implement NRC in the whole country as well. I think that this victory is the verdict of people against NRC implementation."
The West Bengal CM asserted that the Centre will have to work with the state governments if it wants a resolution to issues and development. "They always think that either in my way or highway, this shouldn’t be like this. In a democracy, there is a national highway and a state highway. Both are important and we have to work together but if somebody thinks that they have the highway and we have no way, then nothing matters. We always agree that people matters. Even I want to appeal to the BJP leaders not to take all hasty decisions. You are also elected by the people, so work for the people," she said.