Lok Sabha polls: As Modi gears up for BJP's campaign, can the saffron party retain stronghold in North Bengal?

Over the last two years TMC did a lot of groundwork and launched popular schemes benefiting the poor. In 2019, BJP scored 7-1 out of eight Parliamentary constituencies across the northern districts of West Bengal but TMC improved its performance in the 2021 assembly polls.

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi set to launch BJP’s poll campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal from Cooch Behar on Thursday, the question on everyone’s mind is whether the party will be able to replicate its 2019 mammoth margin in north Bengal or has Trinamool Congress penetrated deep enough to shake the saffron stronghold.

In 2019, BJP scored 7-1 out of eight Parliamentary constituencies across the northern districts of West Bengal but TMC improved its performance in the 2021 assembly polls.

Will TMC's groundwork come to fruition?

Over the last two years TMC did a lot of groundwork and launched popular schemes benefiting the poor. It remains to be seen whether the hard work put in by the cadre will pay any electoral dividend.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has been camping in the area for the past few days. She is not merely overseeing the relief work following a massive storm that hit Jalpaiguri, but also is reaching out to people in her unique way, talking to tea garden workers and villagers in road-side tea stalls.

Her principal lieutenant Abhishek Banerjee is in regular consultation with local leadership to strategise the plans to restore Cooch Behar, which was once a stronghold of Forward Bloc but was won by TMC in 2014 and BJP in 2019. The sitting MP Nisith Pramanik is also a minister in the Modi government.

'Rally'ing up support

On Thursday, Banerjee is also scheduled to speak at a rally at Cooch Behar around noon, while the PM will address a mega rally in the afternoon at a venue 30 km away. This will be the first of three Modi rallies in north Bengal in the first week of April.

Cooch Behar constituency, recently marred by clashes between supporters of Pramanik and TMC leader and minister Udayan Guha, has become a battleground of prestige, with both parties leaving no stone unturned to secure victory.

Up north in Darjeeling, the situation is a bit tricky for BJP as Bishnu Prasad Sharma, the saffron MLA from Kurseong is contesting as an independent candidate after he was denied the Lok Sabha ticket despite initial promises.

In Alipurduar, sitting BJP MP John Barla and a Union Minister, who won with a margin of 2.4 lakh votes last time, was denied a ticket by the party citing performance. An aggrieved Barla, a minority community leader holding sway with the local tribes, has so far stayed away from campaigns alleging conspiracy to keep him out.

The saffron party also shifted its Raiganj MP Debasree Chaudhury – also a Union Minister – to Kolkata (south) following objections from a section of the district and state leaders. A few months back, Krishna Kalyani, the BJP MLA from Raiganj, shifted to TMC claiming a conspiracy hatched by Debasree. TMC has now given the ticket to Kalyani for the LS poll.