The gang rape and subsequent death of a Dalit woman at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh has given a new weapon to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo has wasted no time in hitting the streets over the incident with the aim to label BJP as “anti-Dalit.”
She took out a massive protest march in Kolkata on Saturday. Throughout her thirty minutes-long speech the Chief Minister sought to punch holes into BJP’s claims of upholding the rights of Dalits and maintaining law and order.
Mamata put the BJP government at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh in the same bracket and accused the saffron party of exploiting Dalits for votes.
Her words like “...when Dalits are in distress then I am a Dalit” clearly show that her aim is to retain the political ground from BJP in Scheduled Cast (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) dominated Assembly constituencies which she lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
TMC suffered a major setback in the last Lok Sabha elections where BJP gained led in 13 out 16 Scheduled Tribe(ST) Assembly constituencies in Bengal whereas TMC led in only one seat.
As for SC seats, BJP led 33 out of the 68 SC Assembly constituencies while TMC led in 34 seats while Congress led in one.
Mamata is desperate to win over the vote base and has instructed her party to launch a statewide protest demonstration over the issue with special focus on SC and ST dominated villages. She has shrewdly connected the incident with the farm laws, alleged atrocities against minorities and suppression of democratic rights.
She has dubbed the BJP government at the Centre as “ of the dictatorship, by the dictatorship and for the dictatorship.
”State BJP leadership seems to be in a spot over the issue as so far their only counter to Mamata’s strategy has been the TMC government’s alleged inaction over certain cases of crimes against women in the state. Moreover, the Hathrash incident has blunted the state BJP’s campaign over alleged lack of security of women in Bengal."