BJP nurses Modi-Mamata binary for 2021 Bengal polls

Kolkata: When people talk of political polarisation, the tension of the binary primarily rests on individual leaders. Trinamool Congress has an established leader and a face, Mamata Banerjee. But, for Bengal BJP, with the 2021 assembly polls looming on the horizon, it may not be an easy answer.
The question has gained traction since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when BJP sprung a surprise by winning 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats, having a direct impact in 100-odd assembly constituencies of the total 294.BJP trumped the Congress-Left combine, which took a middle third path with non-polarised voters.
The results turned out to be a Narendra Modi-versus-Mamata battle with Modi and Amit Shah’s trusted lieutenants in Bengal — Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy — making hay.
But left to Ghosh alone, without Modi, it would have been an uneven fight. BJP is aware of this and its central leaders love to nurse the Modi-Mamata binary. According to a senior leader, the party won’t project a chief ministerial candidate for the coming polls because anyone other than Modi and Shah may fall short of Mamata’s stature.
Bengal BJP would thus go into the battle with Ghosh as general and Roy as the strategist while Modi and Shah will keep visiting Bengal as they did during the LS polls.
With changing public mood, the religious polarisation during BJP’s pro-CAA campaign and the opposition’s anti-CAA stir has also changed. Amid the pandemic and post-Amphan, it’s back to pro-Mamata and anti-Mamata lines. Issues like corruption at the grassroots over relief distribution, managing Covid-19 and political violence have returned to the fore.
Senior leaders have also tailored their script to match the shifting sands. Union home minister Shah, during his Bengal virtual rally, spent more time on issues other than CAA.
BJP’s organisational spread has also not been linear since the LS polls, admit party organisers. While it has gained in Hooghly in south Bengal, BJP is not in the same position in Jhargram like it was during the 2018 panchayat polls. TMC also made significant recovery in North 24 Parganas after most of the party-run municipalities went with BJP after the LS polls.
BJP has names for the CM’s post up its sleeves which it will announce only after it wins the Modi-vs-Mamata battle. According to insiders, Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta and Tathagata Roy are some such names. BJP seniors are not likely to field an outsider or a greenhorn like it did in Tripura.
Ghosh may not be an ideal CM candidate for the educated middle class, but he has traction among BJP’s vote base in urban and rural areas. Columnist Dasgupta definitely appeals to the educated society and is also close to Shah. He has been frequenting Bengal and was also present on the dais during Shah’s virtual rally.
Former Bengal BJP president and Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy is also keen on returning to politics. He has the intellectual acumen and served the government in senior administrative capacity. A swayamsevak since 1986, he is known to BJP pracharaks. The only thing that Tathagata has against him is his age, a BJP leader said.