Battle of bengal

Battle of bengal

BJP is trying to make inroads into the state.
When Amit Shah ¬ BJP's high energy president of legendary electoral acumen ¬ visits a state rival parties sit up. So Trinamool Congress has acted quickly after Shah camped at Naxalbari and other places in Bengal: among other things, it swiftly enrolled the Naxalbari couple who hosted Shah for lunch. A massive political battle is brewing with BJP looking to give chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool a run for their money. However, that's easier said than done. In assembly elections held last year, Trinamool had won a mammoth majority of 211 out of 294 seats. BJP was fourth with just three seats.
That said, it is BJP that Trinamool is wary of the most. Not only is it the most energetic of opposition parties in the state, the weight of the central government provides the Bengal BJP with considerable political capital. With the saffron party in expansion mode and UP firmly under its sway, it now wants to do to Trinamool in Bengal what it did to SP in UP . And it may sense in Bengal a target of opportunity as Mamata's policy of coddling Muslim clerics ¬ as well as the toleration of high levels of lawlessness ¬ is similar to the SP style in UP.BJP feels it can leverage a Hindu as well as law-and-order backlash.
However, what BJP may not have reckoned with is that in terms of her political charisma and stature, Mamata could well be seen as the Narendra Modi of Bengal. Even as Bengal shapes up as a big electoral battleground state, what worked in Hindi-speaking states cannot simply be transferred to Bengal. Here, BJP may need to cultivate a charismatic Bengali-speaking leader who can take on Mamata.