2021 Assembly election: BJP chalks out masterplan for mission West Bengal; decoded

After securing a major win in the recently-concluded Bihar assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is chalking out a strategy for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election. With an eye on the election to be held in 2021, the BJP has come up with a masterplan for mission West Bengal.

The entire state of West Bengal has been divided into five zones and a state leader has been appointed as the observer. There are a total of 23 districts which have been divided into the five zones--North Bengal, Nawadwip, Kolkata, Medinipur and Rarh Banga.

The five state leaders appointed as observers of these zones are Sayantan Basu, Biswapriyo Roy Chowdhury, Sanjay Singh, Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and Raju Banerjee.

For North Bengal Zone, the observer is Sayantan Basu and the zones are Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda. For Nawadwip Zone, the observer is Biswapriyo Roy Chowdhury and the zones are Murshidabad, Nadia and North 24 Paraganas.

For Kolkata Zone, the observer is Sanjay Singh and the zones are Kolkata and South 24 Paraganas For Medinipur Zone, the observer is Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato and the zones are Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipur, and Paschim Medinipur.

For Rarh Banga Zone, the observer is Raju Banerjee and the zones are Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Purba Burdwan, Paschim Burdwan and Birbhum.

Besides this, a special-7 team has been delpoyed: BJP in West Bengal has deployed seven central leaders - Sanjay Balyan, Gajendra Shekhawat, Arjun Munda, Mansukh Mandaviya, Keshav Maurya, Pradhan Singh Patel & Narrotam Mishra for the upcoming assembly polls. Each of the central leaders will be given charge of six Lok Sabha seats. For a total of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, seven central leaders have been deployed who will directly look into their six Lok Sabha seats.

Things to be focussed by the zone observers and central team:

Lunch/bhojan: The leaders have been asked to lunch at any normal household in the local areas. During lunch, they must interact with the family and talk about local issues. JP Nadda and Amit Shah have been undertaking the lunch drive each time during their Bengal visit.

Jansampark with Dalit, farmers, labourers, Adivasis, underprivileged class: The leaders must connect with these people to understand what are their expectations and whether they are facing any challenges. This will help them consolidate votes in the tribal, Dalit and farmers belt. JP Nadda and Amit Shah have visited farmers, Dalit and Adivasi family during their visit.

Connect with intellectuals/artists: Combating Mamata Banerjee's outsider jibe, BJP is trying to establish itself with the local culture from Bengal. Hence leaders have been asked to connect with the Bengal's intellectuals and hold meetings with them besides meeting the artists.

To connect with temples/religious/political leaders and freedom fighters: Each time JP Nadda and Amit Shah visits Bengal, they visit the famous temples and pay homage to great leaders. Previously we have seen how they have visited Dakshineswar Kali temple, Kalighat temple and local temples during their visit. From Birsa Munda to Khudiram Bose to Swami Vivekananda to Rabindranath Tagore the leaders have paid homage to them during all their visits.

Focus on breaking TMC from the grassroots level: Ensure TMC workers join BJP from booth level to senior leaders like MLAs and MPs. Target leaders who are rebel, disgruntled with TMC and make them join BJP.

Focus on ST, SC and OBC votes: Stand by these tribes and communities and consolidate their vote bank by getting the support of the SC, ST and OBC.

Focus on fishermen: Bengal has a huge coastline stretching up to 157.5km. Bengal has a huge fishermen population who are dependent on fishing and reside by the coastline. BJP is trying to woo fishermen population to get votes from Bengal's coastline.

Raise law and order problems: Bengal has alerted all local units in the districts of Bengal. They have been asked to report all political murders and raise law and order concerns in the local area.