KOLKATA: BJP’s debacle in Delhi elections has led the Trinamool Congress to intensify its protests against the amended Citizenship Act and forced the saffron camp to keep a plan-B ready if the party’s effort to consolidate Hindu votes using the new Act does not work ahead of Assembly elections.
While Bengal’s ruling party is gearing up to intensify its campaign highlighting BJP’s defeat in Delhi over its alleged use of divisive politics, the BJP is planning to raise issues pertaining to CM Mamata Banerjee’s poor governance along with the CAA issue.
Mamata led a protest march in Durgapur on Wednesday against the amended Act, where she urged people not to show any document to anyone relating to any activity pertaining to the National Population Register (NPR).
"Even if anyone identifies himself or herself as a state government employee and asks for any document related to your citizenship, do not entertain them and drive him or her out of your home," she said while addressing an administrative meeting in Durgapur on Wednesday.
Elaborating on what would be the party’s plan ahead of the assembly elections in 2021, a senior Trinamool leader said, "We will highlight how the BJP’s politics of dividing people on the line of religion was rejected by the people in Delhi. The BJP has adopted the same strategy in Bengal. We will launch a massive movement against their effort to bring Dalit votes using the CAA as a political tool."
The saffron camp’s setback in the national capital has prompted the Bengal BJP to raise the issue of misrule during Mamata’s tenure in Bengal other than the CAA. The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta said the governance issue should get equal priority in the campaigns.