Why BJP is looking to ditch TMC rebels, go solo in Bengal civic polls - The Indian Express

The BJP has decided to go it alone in the coming municipal elections in West Bengal, ruling out an alliance with the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) rebel MPs who are now part of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), despite the latter’s claim of being part of the BJP-led NDA in Delhi.

The decision assumes significance as the BJP prepares for a crucial electoral tests in Kolkata and Howrah following its comfortable win in the Assembly polls earlier this year. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) elections are expected to be held after the Durga Puja festivities, with the electoral map of both corporations undergoing a substantial overhaul following delimitation.

“There is no alliance partner for the BJP in West Bengal. We will fight the Kolkata and Howrah municipal elections on our own strength and win,” state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya recently told reporters.

“There may be an understanding with NCPI in Delhi, but Delhi and Kolkata are about 1,500 kilometres apart,” Bhattacharya said, underlining the state unit’s position that national-level political arrangements would not necessarily translate into electoral alliances in Bengal.

The BJP’s decision also comes against the backdrop of the party’s growing confidence in Kolkata following the Assembly polls. “The BJP had almost nothing in KMC. But in the Assembly poll results, people have voted for BJP in most seats in Kolkata. We will fight in all 209 seats and win with a thumping majority,” Ritesh Tiwari, convener of the BJP committee overseeing the KMC polls, told The Indian Express.

He said the party would make corruption and municipal services central to its campaign. “Earlier there was a promoter, land shark, KMC officials and police nexus in the corporation. There was corruption in KMC, so much so that people used to call it ‘chorporation’ instead of corporation. We will weed out corruption and serve the people of Kolkata,” he said.

The NCPI, however, has been projecting the possibility of an alliance with the BJP on the grounds of its association with the NDA in Parliament. Party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, one of the prominent faces, has said the possibility of an electoral understanding remains open.

“We are the largest coalition member of the BJP-led NDA and will contest the civic polls as members of the alliance. For that, we will have to form an alliance with the BJP. We will take a decision when the election approaches, but there is every possibility there will be a coalition,” she said.

Following the TMC’s rout in the Assembly polls, 20 MPs led by Ghosh Dastidar quit the party and joined the NCPI and have attended NDA meetings in Delhi since then.

However, the West Bengal BJP leadership is seemingly not on the same page. “First, we want to depend on our own organisation, leaders and workers. This is the first election after we came to power in Bengal. Second, there is a difference between national politics, its compulsion and poll strategy in the state. The NCPI may be an NDA partner, but they are former TMC leaders against whom our workers have fought, many of them given their lives. If we join hands, a wrong message will go to our leaders and workers,” said a senior BJP leader from Bengal.

Pointing to the “corrupt image of TMC leaders, the leader added that the polls will be fought on the promise of establishing corruption-free systems. “What will the voter think if we join hands with a section of TMC leaders who face corruption charges?” the leader added.

Political calculations and the proposed reorganisation also seem to have influenced the BJP’s decision to fight the polls alone. The BJP believes that a multi-cornered contest with the NCPI, the TMC led by Mamata Banerjee, rebel TMC MLAs, Left, and the Congress could work to its advantage if it contests independently.

The proposed restructuring of the municipal wards, which will increase the number of KMC wards from 144 to 209 and from 50 to 68 in Howrah, has also bolstered the BJP’s hopes. The delimitation is expected to alter the political geography of both corporations, with changes in voter distribution, polling stations, booth-level organisation and the social and political composition of individual wards.

For the BJP, the exercise presents both an organisational challenge and an opportunity to expand its footprint. Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar has been given responsibility for the Kolkata elections, while Rajya Sabha MP Rahul Sinha has been assigned charge of the Howrah contest.

Party sources said the BJP’s campaign was likely to focus on roads, drainage, waste management, drinking water, street lighting, and urban infrastructure, while simultaneously using the elections to assess its strength at the ward and booth levels.

In Kolkata, the delimitation exercise is aimed at addressing disparities in the number of voters across wards. Sources said the administration was looking at bringing the electorate in individual wards closer to the 15,000-16,000 range.

The increase in the number of wards will also redraw the electoral prospects of several sitting councillors, while creating space for a large number of new political faces.

The Mamata-led TMC, meanwhile, said it was prepared for the civic contest but questioned the delimitation exercise.

“We are prepared and will get good results. However, we have strong reservations about the delimitation process. It should have been done on the basis of population. But it is being done on the basis of voters to give BJP an advantage,” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.

The Howrah election is particularly significant as the corporation has not had an elected civic board for years.

The State Election Commission has asked the administrations concerned to complete the final delimitation proposals by the second week of September, with draft reservation orders expected around the middle of the month. The commission has indicated that the civic elections, including in Kolkata and Howrah, are to be completed by December 7.

The municipal contests will follow the October 6 bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar, with counting scheduled for October 9.

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