Alarmed by the rising popularity of the BJP in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has suddenly sharpened her attack on NDA prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is coming back to the State for the third time in the last a few months on Sunday to hold an election rally at Uttarpara in Hooghly in support of party candidates Chandan Mitra and Bappi lahiri. He will address a rally on May 4 in Asansol for Babul Supriyo.
While experts are predicting that the BJP will dent the Trinamool vote bank, particularly in the urban and industrial regions, an unnerved Trinamool supremo has said that the Modi wave is a creation of the media and “the Modi balloon would burst” after May 16.
The Bengal Chief Minister, who earlier mounted personal attacks on Modi, told a rally: “Those who are projecting Modi as the next Prime Minister will soon see how the gas balloon bursts.” “like a gas balloon which deflates after its gas is leaked, the high expectation that Modi will become the Prime Minister and that there is a Modi wave in the country will subside after the election results are out,” Mamata said.
Apart from her fear of a surging BJP, which is making a dent in the Trinamool base, Mamata’s attack on Modi is also seen as a ploy to regain minority votes. In an apparent bid to impress the Muslim vote bank, she repeatedly told her election rallies that she “do not want faces that engineer riots.”
Modi, who has dismissed Mamata’s criticisms saying “she does not digest her food without criticising me”, seems to have restricted his attacks to a tolerable level. On how he would react to Mamata’s repeated attacks on him he recently told a television channel that he was not angry but disappointed with Mamata for failing to bring a real parivartan after ousting the Marxists from the State.
Mamata’s diatribe against the saffron leadership seems to have sent a message to the Trinamool rank and file who are physically attacking BJP workers. Curiously such attacks have taken places in Birbhum, Hooghly, Sreerampur, Asansol, Howrah, Dum Dum and places particularly where the BJP is in a winnable situation.
The BJP is giving the Trinamool a hard nut to crack in a host of seats in the State. Basirhat BJP candidate Samik Bhattacharya said: “The election results will spring a few surprises.” Going by the response the candidates are getting “one would not be surprised if the party gets half-a-dozen seats,” a senior State leader said adding the saffron outfit was expecting good results from Asansol, Krishangore, Sreerampur, Barasat, Dum Dum and North Kolkata, “apart from the sure seat of Darjeeling.”
The fear of losing has led the Trinamool to attack Asansol BJP candidate and singer Babul Supriyo even physically. “I have been an ardent supporter of Trinamool. like me hundreds of people of my area were Trinamool supporters. But the way they have treated Babul Supriyo by heckling him and lodging false FIRs against him we have changed our minds” said Dr IR Ray from Asansol.
And with the BJP fast reaching the winnable position, the party leadership has decided to put extra impetus to its campaign by bringing in Modi repeatedly. On Sunday, Modi will campaign for Bappil lahiri in Sreerampur and for Chandan Mitra in Hooghly constituency which houses Singur where a large number of youth are fuming at the flight of Tata Nano plant on account of Banerjee’s militant movement.
The highest number of seats the BJP had won from Bengal is two when in 1999 when it was in alliance with the Trinamool Congress.