State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Monday took up the task to drive home the point that the ruling Trinamool dispensation in Bengal had been depriving north Bengal, a region where the saffron camp has managed to win several Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the past few elections.
Bhattacharya, who landed in Bagdogra on Monday on his first visit to the region after assuming the post of the party’s state unit chief, also gave instances of the ruling party’s alleged highhandedness in the Assembly.
“In the Assembly, the speech of economist Ashok Lahiri (the Balurghat BJP MLA) is being expunged. This does not happen in Parliament. Unfortunately, the ruling party is running the Assembly in such an undemocratic manner,” Bhattacharya, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, said.
He added that in the 1990s, the BJP could secure only around 11.66 per cent of votes in Bengal. “Today, we have proved that the BJP is a reckonable political force in Bengal. We also adhere to political courtesy unlike our political contenders,” Bhattacharya said.
The state BJP president also scoffed at Trinamool and questioned the party’s silence on the recent incidents of violence in Murshidabad, Malda and Maheshtala.
“Trinamool remains selectively silent because of its vote bank. People have understood it and will not support the party anymore,” he claimed.
In north Bengal, the BJP has won six of eight Lok Sabha seats in 2024, while Trinamool and the Congress had won one each.
In 2021, the BJP bagged 30 of 54 Assembly seats in the region while Trinamool had won in 23 seats.
“The BJP is desperate to retain the seats in this region. The first visit of the new state president hints at it. It is evident that he and well his party have the region in focus,” said a political observer.
At Bagdogra, Bhattacharya also told newspersons that on July 21, the day Trinamool would organise its Martyrs’ Day mega rally in Calcutta, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the saffron party youth wing, would take a march to Uttarkanya, the state’s branch secretariat in Siliguri.
“Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, will lead the march against the lack of governance in the state and deprivation of north Bengal,” he said.