BJP Upsurge!

Post LS Polls(2014)Scenario in West Bengal: Once BJP was a rare political species in our state. It was almost a non-entity. Over the last few years it’s, however, gained strength, thanks to the down fall of the Left empire and morbid condition of the state congress.TMC’s misrule, attempts to ignore or marginalize democratic institutions and gag dissenting voices which have alienated the urban upper and lower middle classes from the party have also helped BJP improve its position in the state. Now BJP has made a quantum jump at one go by doubling its strength riding on Modi wave. Although BJP has bagged only 2 seats, its vote share has gone from 9% to almost 19%.BJP is expected to go from strength to strength with the passage of time. Now the party is a formidable force to reckon with.TMC is very much concerned with BJP upsurge. The Left is now a sagging force and its unabated downslide in vote share (nearly 30% in the present polls) since long makes the party bordering on losing its relevance in national politics.Nor are there serious efforts to arrest this trend or make a turn- around. Now the party faces the leadership crisis that it ever did. Most of the leaders have grown sufficiently old to spend time and energy for revival of the party. Now what the party badly needs is infusion of young blood. But the way party activists and even supporters and sympathizers are mercilessly attacked by the TMC over- enthusiasts with none to protect them and the leadership washing their hands off after issuing statement only does not encourage the new young faces to enlist their names in the party, nor do people dare extend their support to the party openly. On the contrary, BJP siphon off the Left workers and swell its rank and file. However, the committed Left workers prefer maintaining low profile to joining BJP.After each debacle in polls, the Left leaders review the causes of dismal performance of the party and prescribe some measures but without any tangible result. If the things are allowed to drift this way the Left would lose much of its relevance in the state politics too. In the 2016 Assembly polls the Left might finish fourth after TMC,BJP and Congress. BJP now fills the vacuum created by the Left. They’re likely to fare well in Calcutta Corporation election which TMC like to dodge now considering BJP’s impressive performance in many assembly segments in Kolkata and freshness of Modi wave. In fact, BJP now posses a great challenge to TMC and this challenge might intensify if NDA can deliver goods at center.