DNA Edit: PM’s Bengal footprint – His rally has shored up the morale of BJP workers

West Bengal is one of the few states that has been resisting the Modi juggernaut since 2014. That is not to say that the BJP has not made inroads into Mamata Banerjee’s bastion. If anything, the saffron party’s grass-roots engagement has caused enough trepidation in the heart of the Trinamool Congress Party, which is wary of a BJP surge in 2019 elections. A huge chunk of the population, polarised along communal lines, is seeking a change from TMC’s politics of violence and minority-appeasement policies. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Midnapore, addressing farmers in the district, is part of his outreach programme for the economically deprived sections of society. Bengal is an extremely fertile land where farmer suicides are unheard of. Yet, many of those who had attended the rally complained of acute water shortage that’s increasingly making paddy cultivation difficult. More importantly, they expressed ignorance about the rural welfare schemes of the BJP. This reveals that on the one hand, TMC has brushed farmers’ woes under the carpet, and on the other, blocked out information about the Centre-sponsored economic benefits that cultivators in other parts of the country are availing of.

The latest feather in the BJP’s turban is the hike in MSP. The party, it appears, stands to gain in certain parts of Bengal, especially in the tribal belts. With the CPI-M pushed to the margins, and the Congress grappling with an eroding support base, the BJP can fill in the political vacuum. PM Modi focussed on the culture of violence that has been the mainstay of Bengal’s politics. The recent panchayat poll was a generous indication of how free and fair elections are under Banerjee’s watch.