The alleged “insult” of President Droupadi Murmu has opened a new front in the war between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, with both attempting to establish which side had shown greater disrespect to the country’s highest constitutional post ahead of the Assembly elections in Bengal where the tribal vote bank is deemed vital.
The BJP has been flagging the “protocol breach” in a recent tribal meet in north Bengal attended by President Murmu, where she commented that neither chief minister Mamata Banerjee nor her ministers were there to receive her.
The Trinamool leadership, in turn, has countered with a 2024 photograph where L.K. Advani on receiving the Bharat Ratna, is seated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while the President is seen standing in the
same frame.
Besides several senior BJP leaders across the country, Modi on Sunday strongly attacked Trinamool and Mamata over the alleged insult to Murmu, claiming it was an insult to the Constitution.
The Union home ministry has sought a detailed report from the Bengal government over the alleged protocol breach involving the
President.
Sources said the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to use the alleged insult to President Murmu as a poll weapon against Trinamool ahead of the elections, reaching out not only to the tribal community but also to the state’s educated middle class.
The BJP’s strategy became clear when the party fielded its tribal MP, Khagen Murmu, who was allegedly assaulted by Trinamool workers during flood relief distribution last year in Jalpaiguri’s Nagrakata, to attack Mamata.
The MP claimed that members of the tribal community were angry with Trinamool over the “insult” to the President and wanted Mamata to resign.
“The chief minister is shameless as she did not go to receive the President. We not only want her apology, but her resignation as well. She must resign to save the honour of the tribal community. The chief minister is arrogant and considers herself the Badshah. She has no right to occupy the chair of the chief minister,” Murmu said. “This is not only the humiliation of the President but also of the entire tribal community, particularly women. We will take up the issue with every tribal family in the state.”
Bengal has a tribal population of around 55 lakh, with 16 Assembly seats reserved for the community. In the 2021 Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress and the BJP won nine and seven of these seats, respectively. In terms of leads in those 16 Assembly segments during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the picture did not change significantly.
BJP leaders said that apart from ST reserved seats, substantial tribal populations exist in several other constituencies too. Amid Trinamool’s welfare politics, the BJP is actively wooing tribal women voters.
MP Khagen Murmu had claimed there would be large-scale protests across the state. However, many BJP insiders admitted the party could not organise protests on the scale it had intended.
A source said that as most party leaders have been busy with the ongoing Parivartan Yatra, it has not been possible for them to launch multiple protests across the state simultaneously.
However, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said that while the party would continue to launch movements and protests against the “insult”, they wanted to see an end to this unseemly controversy by ousting Trinamool from power.
Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty, however, believed that the BJP failed to capitalise on this issue properly because the Yuva Sathi dole has started reaching beneficiary accounts.
“It is true that people took the alleged insult to the President very seriously. But the BJP could not pursue the issue effectively because of Mamata Banerjee’s decision to begin early disbursement of the Yuva Sathi dole. It attracted the youth, who are the main force behind any protest. The BJP could not turn the issue into spontaneous protests because of the lack of mobilisation of youths,” he said.
Trinamool also has been handling the President issue cautiously. The party has shifted its attack towards the BJP and Narendra Modi rather than the President, arguing that the BJP dragged the highest constitutional office into politics.
“They have not spared the President’s chair. They have made her make political comments against us. They say we have insulted the President because the chief minister was busy in a dharna protecting people’s rights. I am showing you a photo where the President is standing and the Prime Minister is seated. My question is: who is respecting whom? Who is insulting the President?” Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee asked at a rally in Mathurapur.
Mamata showed the same photo during her dharna in Calcutta to attack Modi. During minister Chandrima Bhattacharya’s speech, Mamata reminded her not to attack the President, saying the latter was not at fault.