CAA: BJP Campaign In West Bengal To Counter TMC

The BJP leadership seems to have woken up finally, for a need put forth its point of view clearly in West Bengal, on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with an eye on the assembly polls in 2021. The party is set to launch a campaign in the state to counter what it terms as the "misinformation" campaign of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on CAA.

The West Bengal BJP leadership sees the resistance to the new citizenship law as an opportunity for the party to face the TMC challenge in the assembly polls to be held in the state next year.

The anti-CAA campaign by the TMC, Left and other opposition parties, backed by students has thrown a spanner in the BJP's works, to a very large extent. On the lines of several other states including Kerala and Congress ruled ones, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has taken a strong stand against the implementation of CAA in her state and has led protest rallies.

The BJP has been lagging behind and is no match to the TMC in West Bengal. It could organise one huge march in Kolkata, led by BJP national working president J P Nadda, but nothing more. It is against this background that the party hopes to reach out to the people of West Bengal through its campaign.

It remains to be seen how successful the BJP's outreach programme on CAA in West Bengal would prove to be. While its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections exceeded expectations, assembly polls are likely to prove to be a different cup of tea altogether.