Samikhsya Bureau
Track records of the NDA in the gap of its promises and their fulfillment now calls for introspection by the NDA if seen in totality. But the victory against a very restive political phase in Bengal it has become more challenging for the centre to satisfy the aspirations of the people of Bengal who mandated for Narendra Modi with an unprecedented zeal.
Perhaps for the first time in post-Independence era, the entire Bengal will stay glued to the live streaming of the glittering swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi at Rastrapati Bhawan in New Delhi as the BJP-led NDA has many promises to keep to revive the old glory of the state.
Both Modi and his general Amit Shah canvassed in the nook and cranny of the state 17 times each with promises of restoring the lost glory of Bengal if the people vote liberally to make ” Modi Sarkar phir ekbar”.
And the people voted liberally for the saffron brigade to let the lotus bloom in the firebrand leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress heartland despite facing a plethora of odds,
Braving man-made hindrances, natural calamity like Fani, searing heat and neary 100 per cent humidity, the Modi-Shah campaigning spun magic yielding rich dividends as the BJP scripted victory in the 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats and four Assembly Bypoll seats with an astronomical 40.2 per cent vote share.
Interestingly, the 2019 Lok Sabha poll is very similar to that of 2009 General election in Bengal when the Trinamool Congress romped home in 19 seats giving a jolt to the Left Front under the watchful eyes of the central forces. The slogan was “chup chaap fulley (flowers) chaap,” worked wonder at that time bringing down the CPI(M)-led Left Front to 15 from 35 seats in Bengal.
Taking a leaf from that slogan, Modi during his electioneering here had repeatedly uttered that famous quote “Chhupe Chhape Kamal ( lotus) Chhaap”.
And the slogan again wove magic as the voters pressed button to reduce the TMC to 22 in 2019
from 34 in 2014, signalling a meterioric rise of the saffron brigade from one in 2009 to two in 2014 to ninefold jump of 18 in 2019.
The BJP has always attached special status to the winning candidate from Bengal as Mr Jaswant Singh was made cabinet minister for winning Darjeeling seat with GJM support, and then S S Ahluwalia (Darjeeling) and Babul Supriyo (Asansol) were also made ministers in Modi 1.
Political analysts say since the BJP, eyeing for 2021 Assembly poll in Bengal, and Modi and Shah made promises that the berth of winning MPs from Bengal must be proportionate in the Modi
2 government, Bengal may stand a good chance of getting a number of ministers this time.
The BJP made almost a clean sweep in north Bengal winning 7 our of 8 seats from the farthest Cooch Behar up to Malda North and then major share in North 24 Parganas and tribal heartland of Purulia, Bankura, and Jhargram, the so called backwards areas of Bengal.
The golden period of Bengal in the pre-Independence era is known to all the countrymen and was being acknowledged by the world after Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel prize in literature. And before him Bengal produced statesmen and reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda and many others.
Taking the names of those great personalities and iconic social reformers several times during their electioneering, Modi and Shah more often than not made no bones about the fact that Bengal’s position dwindled years after years at the hands of successive governments, and finally industry, which first came here through British, find no takers from the investors.
Historically since late 70s Bengal governments had been opposing the successive Central governments and the situation reached at its zenith when the present dispensation in the state in recent years has been drawing battlelines with each and every move of the Modi government for past five years and strained Centre-State relations has its consequences.
The strained relations between the Centre and the State continued even on the first day of the Modi 2
government when Banerjee cancelled her participation in the swearing-in ceremony.
” The oath-taking ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not one that should be devalued by any political party, ” Banerjee said in her twitter account.
However, 2019 poll and its result will perhaps have a long term consequence on the making of new Bengal as promised by Modi and Shah after some 40 per cent voters have reposed their faith in the saffron brigade anticipating resurgence of development in this part of India.
( with UNI inputs)
