Classification of polling booths into platinum, gold, silver and bronze, appointment of towering ‘pramukhs’ and networking with NGOs were among the strategies deployed by the BJP in West Bengal over the past few months. While the All India Trinamool Congress and other parties focused on the exceptions arising from the Special Intensive Review of Electoral Rolls, the BJP launched a multi-pronged attack to unseat the three-term Special Intensive Review ruling.
“What we have changed since 2021 is that we have gone on the offensive. We have confronted Trinamool from every angle which made Mamata Banerjee very defensive for the duration of the campaign,” a senior party leader in Bengal said.
The party’s first step was to improve organizational strength, although it knew it would be difficult to match the TMC on this front. However, it has increased the number of active field workers from just over 100,000 in the last election to about 300,000.
It also ensured that workers believed in the cause. “Before, we did not check these workers. This time, we got their Aadhaar numbers, and we kept checking them every week or so, so they have already been mapped,” said a strategist involved in the planning.
The difficult thing, of course, was to raise this army of workers without alerting the other side. “It was only in the last month or so that we encouraged these karyakartas to get out there and start really working on the campaign,” added the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous.
The party was encouraged by the support it claims it received from people when the campaign began – something the results seem to confirm.
“No one thought we would win,” said Loknath Chatterjee, the party’s legal coordinator in Bengal. “But as soon as the election campaign started, there were a lot of people, both in high-rise buildings and in basti, who welcomed us and supported us.”
In fact, high-rise buildings have been a particular focus of the BJP’s campaign in urban areas like Chowrinji, Rashbehari and Jadavpur. The party modified its reputation Banna Pramukhs (The employee responsible for each page in the electoral lists) The concept of appointing a Pramukh Responsible for all high-rise buildings in designated areas.
As the general secretary in charge of the state, Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav asked his team to focus on the 45,000 booths spread across 100 odd seats which the BJP lost by a margin of less than 5% last time.
The workers also warned against intimidation of 30% Muslim votes in Bengal. He said that contrary to what was previously imagined, Muslim voting was limited to only 47 seats.
The workers then divided these 45,000 stalls into categories based on the amount of work required on them. The platinum booths were allocated 50 workers, the gold booths were allocated 25 workers, the silver booths were allocated 10, and the rest were bronze, with one worker each. For example, the party has identified its flagship Nayagram seat as a C-class constituency (very difficult to win).
He was with the Left from 1977 until 2011, when he switched to the TMC. Thus Yadav classifies 50% of its suites as platinum. Amiya Kisku’s party subsequently won with 100,857 votes.
“The people of West Bengal are fed up with the TMC’s patronage of crime and corruption, and they have chosen Modi’s model of good governance,” said Indranil Khan, who flipped another leading urban seat of Behala Paschim, which was represented by TMC’s Partha Chatterjee three times.
The party also carried out a targeted outreach campaign through NGOs and women’s groups, both of which overwhelmingly supported the TMC last time around. “We first had to identify those NGOs that might be open to working with us. Once we did that, we asked them to do some campaigning on our behalf as well. Every little bit of communication helped us in the end,” said the previously mentioned senior leader.
The final strategy was to eat up the women’s vote which Mamata Banerjee claimed as her constituency. The party deployed a women’s cell to go door to door to talk about the Annapurna scheme, under which women have the right $3000 every month. “Be it the mahila morcha or all other women leaders, we told them how schemes like Lakhpati have helped women across the country,” said Locket Chatterjee, former BJP MP.
To unite various parties for a perfect ending, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also spent days in the state. It was a gamble – especially after the disappointment of 2021 and the general elections in 2024. But for Modi-Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Bengal has proven a third time’s charm.
