Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who is advising the Trinamool Congress (TMC), claimed on Monday the BJP will struggle to cross double digits in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.
His comments a day after Home Minister Amit Shah concluded his two-day tour of the State during which seven Trinamool Congress MLAs and an MP witched sides to join the BJP. The TMC’s political attack has been mostly targeted on the BJP and not on the Left or the Congress in the State. The BJP has only three legislators in the current West Bengal Assembly.
Mr. Kishor tweeted,“For all the hype AMPLIFIED by a section of supportive media, in reality BJP will struggle to CROSS DOUBLE DIGITS in #WestBengal. PS: Please save this tweet and if BJP does any better I must quit this space!”
The TMC insiders say the BJP could easily emerge as the principal opposition in the State. Extrapolating the 2019 performance of the party when it won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State, the projected tally for Assembly seats stands at 157 for Trinamool Congress and 121 for the BJP.
However, the Trinamool Congress is banking on the fact that Assembly elections rarely mirror Lok Sabha results.
“The key difference between the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the upcoming Assembly elections is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on ticket back then, so BJP could garner votes in his name. Now Mamata Banerjee is on the ticket and the election is for the Chief Minister’s post,” a senior Trinamool Congress leader said.
The Trinamool Congress is also banking on the fact that the BJP will solely eat into the Left-Congress votes. “Our internal surveys indicate that there will be a sharp drop in vote share of Left and Congress. They got nearly 12% of the vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which could come down to a single digit,” the leader added.
The BJP has seen a steady rise in the State. In 2011 Assembly polls it got over 4% vote share but did not win a single seat. In 2016 this increased to 10.6% with three seats. And in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party had managed to corner nearly 40% of the votes.
In response to Mr Kishor’s tweet, BJP’s General Secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted, “Given the ongoing BJP tsunami in Bengal; once the new government is formed, the country will have to lose an election strategist.”
