Bengal Election 2021 was one of the deadliest and bloodshed elections in all the elections so far since the emergency. What made it the deadliest election was the post-poll violence against the losing party i.e. BJP & LEFT by allegedly winning party i.e., TMC. Never saw such violence at least in my 30 years of life.
A video on Twitter circulating and was very disturbing, a BJP female booth worker abducted by allegedly TMC workers. She was crying and shouting for help but no one helped her. Later we found out that she was raped and brutally killed by her abductors. Too much price for just supporting BJP.
It’s very disturbing and heart-wrenching to see how BJP big stalwarts and leaders have failed to keep their workers safe. This politics of vengeance is not new in Indian elections history. Fact is only ground-level workers suffer the heat of such vengeance at least most of the time they do.
Politics is indeed a dirty game, and it’s all about holier than thou. But why BJP, a well-oiled election machine failed in this Bengal election 2021? The only silver lining for them as they manage to defeat Mamta Banerjee in a high-profile election in Nandigram. Many will argue that BJP is now the main opposition party with 77 seats but that is totally an understatement. BJP had everything, brave and enthusiastic workers, hard-working party stalwarts like Kailash Vijayvargiya then but exactly went wrong for BJP?
Here are the top 8 reasons why BJP lost in West Bengal Assembly Election 2021.
- No CM Face: One of the biggest mistakes BJP did was not projecting their CM. There was literally no face against Mamta Banerjee. BJP made the same mistake in Delhi’s election and it seems they did not learn anything from that. CM face becomes so important especially in those states where BJP is not ruling, and a CM of ruling party is extremely popular. People will trust you more if you go with a CM face. Of Course, BJP has won many states without projecting their CM, like in Assam, but even their people knew their leader would be either Himanta Biswa or Sarbananda Sonwal and it helped them.
- Too Much Relying on Modi’s Magic: Modi is extremely a popular leader of recent times and as Prashant Kishor said that PM Modi has his own cult of 15%-20% voters. For that 15-20% PM Modi as a demigod. PM Modi was there for first four phases and people did give votes to BJP and later when he was too busy in handling COVID-19 pandemic and he was out of the picture BJP lost the momentum.
- Unspoken pact of opposition parties: When Nandigram elections were over Mamta Banerjee knew that she has lost some space to the BJP and she sent SOS message to all the opposition parties to help her in stopping the juggernaut of BJP and her call was answered by all the parties. LEFT, Congress or AIMIM. In fact, Rahul Gandhi announced that he will not do any rally in West Bengal. He claimed it is because of COVID situation in country but it is not a rocket science to figure out why exactly he did that. BJP was taken aback by this as they were expecting some fight from other parties and it totally caught them by surprise, they really had no answer to it as it was too late to do anything. Not only that, Mamta Banerjee’s direct call to Muslims to vote unitedly to TMC had also impacted BJP’s plan.
- 2nd wave of Covid-19: After four phases of elections in west Bengal whole country saw the deadliest 2nd wave of COVID 19 and PM Modi and Amit Shah both shifted their attention to tackle this. People in India and West Bengal saw gruesome pictures of this 2nd wave and helplessness of people of the country. They had not idea how to react, people were dying because of lack of oxygen and beds and somewhat this shattered their trust on BJP as they saw it directly as NDA’s failure or I should say Modi’s failure. Core voters were intact with BJP but swing voters, which is around 20%, changed their mood because of this.
- Too much focus on Nandigram: Another thing which caused the defeat of BJP in West-Bengal election was their too much focus on Nandigram as it was battle of honour. Which they won, Shubhendu Adhikari who had left TMC before election and joined BJP
- Mocking Mamta Banerjee’s injury: One thing which everyone will give to Mamta Banerjee is that her acting skills are at par with some of the Bollywood actors, we all knew she was faking her injuries, but she is a shrewd politician but hey who isn’t, politics is all about power and if any particular image helps you to get back to the power, then why not! We have seen Modi cry so many times. Many BJP leaders mocked her injuries and said so many unnecessary things to her, which she not only turned around for own benefit, but she built the narrative of how BJP is anti-women plus Mamta’s many women centric schemes also helped her, she was the favourite of women voters. BJP did not do much to woo the women support like in UP in 2017 where BJP got the most of the women votes because of their schemes (Like free gas stove and one cylinder, electricity and house).
- Muslim appeasement: This last one is very controversial, Mamta Banerjee openly asked Muslim’s support and election commission let her go with slap on the wrist. BJP tried the same, they fielded Muslim candidates probably for the very first time in West Bengal and then there was PM Modi’s picture with a Muslim boy. Of course, it was good for his image and probably on longer run it will help BJP too, but it somehow dragged their own section of voters far away, they did not come out to vote. BJP’s slogan “Joy Shree Ram” did not work, not to the full extent.
- Fear: Many people actually did not come out to vote out of fear. And post poll violence completely how true that was. This was very unfortunate for democracy and surprisingly no opposition party is condemning this. Bengal poll violence is not unprecident but not good for thrivign democracy. World is watchign us.
From last 7 years since Modi and Shah at the helm of party and government have shown they take no for an answer when it comes to the election. Amit Shah on several occasions have shown his desire to win West Bengal and Kerala. Probably BJP will end up winning Kerala, West Bengal or probably all 28 states but repeating same mistakes states by states will increase the time of that.
Mr. Amit Singh has completed his B.Com from Delhi University and his M. Com from IGNOU, he is currently working in an MNC as finance manager. He Lives in Delhi. Big fan of Sachin Tenudulkar, love economics, accounts, dogs, food, books. He also like writing on several topics mostly finance and current affairs as it interest him the most. Love to make friends and love to have healthy discussions and debate on social platforms on several current affair or educational topics. He has 11 years of vast experience in finance and accounts field. He also investing in share market from last 10 years. You can share yours ideas, write or feedback to me on my official email id i.e amit@madforword.com