BJP to Highlight SIR Issue in Bengal Polls

New Delhi: Buoyed by its performance in the Bihar Assembly polls, the BJP has decided to take up the issue of special intensive scrutiny (SIR) of voter rolls in poll-bound West Bengal in a big way. Also recalibrating its strategy for the Bengal elections to be held early next year, the saffron party will focus on issues like “misgovernance”, law and order situation and “demographic invasion from Bangladesh” under TMC’s “patronage” instead of “Hindutva”, which was its main poll plank in the last Assembly elections.

The BJP and its allies won an overwhelming majority in Bihar, where the Opposition attacked it for implementing SIR and associating it with the “vote chorus”. Now, ahead of the crucial Bengal elections, the party has decided to highlight the SIR issue in a big way and has also deployed its social media machinery to inform about how the rights and opportunities of people in the state have been “snatched” by infiltrators who are the “TMC’s vote bank”.

The BJP even filed a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that there were more than 13 lakh “fake voters” in the state. The party also alleged that the state government was pressuring BLOs to weed out illegal smuggling.

The BJP also asked its leaders to inform people about the Opposition’s propaganda against the SIR regarding Matua and tribal communities in the state.

Apart from fine-tuning its poll strategies on the ground, the BJP leadership is also reaching out to its senior leaders, involving them in poll activities and using their “influence” to garner support. The party’s ballot box managers are also sending messages to Karyakartaş that they will be given priority in candidate selection. The party faced disagreements on the issue in the last elections.

To increase support, BJP is taking up the ‘Parivartan Sankalp Yatras’ project.

It is learned that RSS is also actively involved and has deployed its swayamsevaks to reach out to people.

Also, not giving the ruling TMC a chance to divert the poll discourse, BJP strategists told the party leaders to focus on issues troubling the state. Women’s safety will also be an important poll plank of the Saffron Party.