Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: BJP national president Nitin Nabin on Thursday expressed confidence that the party would form its first government in West Bengal, where assembly elections are scheduled for April 23 and 29.Nabin pointed to the party’s strong surge in the 2021 state assembly poll, when it won 77 seats — up from just 3 in 2016 — and secured a 38% vote share, its best-ever showing in West Bengal.“We are definitely going to form our government there… Where were we in Bengal in 2016, and where were we in 2021? Political rivalry is visible in Bengal. Despite this, we have been steadily growing and have reached 38% of the vote share… BJP has steadily strengthened its roots in Bengal,” Nabin told ANI in an exclusive interview.The 2021 performance established the BJP as the principal challenger to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC). However, several BJP legislators, including some who had defected from the TMC, returned to the Banerjee-led party after the polls.Additionally, the saffron party’s Lok Sabha tally in West Bengal fell to 12 (out of 42 seats) in the 2024 general elections, down from its record haul of 18 five years earlier.The run-up to the upcoming assembly elections has been dominated by the Election Commission’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, following which 91 lakh voters were removed, prompting the TMC to cry foul.The Trinamool has also questioned the ECI’s transfer of bureaucrats and IPS officers in the state. While the poll panel oversees a poll-bound state’s machinery during the model code of conduct, the TMC has cited these transfers to allege “collusion” between the BJP and the ECI.“If you bring in illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, we will definitely raise the issue. Have we ever removed anyone’s name arbitrarily? But if illegal immigrants from Bangladesh try to obtain citizenship through wrongful means, action will be taken. More such actions will follow in the coming time,” Nabin said on the SIR issue.“Mamata Banerjee should not worry. We will take care of the people of Bengal. She has only been concerned about Bangladeshis so far,” he added.Banerjee, who led the TMC to power in 2011 for its first term, is aiming for a fourth consecutive term.A total of 152 of the 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal will vote in the first phase, with the remaining seats going to polls in the second.The counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.
