Bengal: No outside leaders in BJP campaign

Kolkata, Dec 2 Taking a lesson from the defeat in the last West Assembly polls, the state BJP leadership has decided not to bring any leader from outside the state to campaign for the forthcoming Assembly polls.

The decision to do the entire campaign comes after the ruling Trinamool Congress floated their 'Bohiragoto' (outsider) theory to take air from the wings of the saffron brigade.

However, in the run-up to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) polls, scheduled on December 19, 2021, the BJP leadership does not want to repeat the same mistake. So, following the strict instruction of the central leadership, none of the national leaders of the party from Delhi or from other states will be present for the campaign for the KMC polls.

It needs to be mentioned that the BJP brought in several top national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Jogi Adityanath to lead the high-profile campaign for more than two months but it didn't yield good results. Trinamool Congress, on the other hand relying on their 'Son of the Soil' theory could make a better bet than its counterpart.

In the forthcoming KMC polls, the star campaigner list prepared by the state BJP shows that the campaign will be led by BJP state president and Lok Sabha member, Sukanta Majumdar, BJP's national vice president and Lok Sabha member, Dilip Ghosh, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

There are several other leaders in the list of star campaigners that include Union minister of state for shipping, Shantanu Thakur, Union minister of state for home, Nishith Pramaik, Union minister of state for education, Dr. Subhash Sarkar, actor Rudranil Ghosh, Payel Ghosh, Hiran Chattopadhyay and economist and legislator in West Bengal assembly, Ashok Lahiri, among others.

Speaking on the issue, a senior BJP leader and one of the star campaigners, said: "We need to depend on Bengal centric faces and not on the Central leadership on everything. Unless we are able to promote Bengal-centric faces, it will not be possible for our party to progress much in the state. This is a local election with focus on local issues. So not leaders from New Delhi, but those from West Bengal will spearhead the campaign for the KMC polls".

Sources in BJP also said that for the KMC polls the focus will be on door-to-door campaigns rather than big meetings or rallies.