BJP to Highlight SIR Issue in Bengal Polls
The BJP and its allies bagged a sweeping majority in Bihar, where the Opposition had been attacking it over the SIR exercise and linking it to "vote chori".
New Delhi: Buoyed by its performance in the Bihar Assembly polls, the BJP has decided to take up the issue of special intensive review (SIR) of the voter roll in the poll-bound West Bengal in a big way. Also, recalibrating its strategy for the Bengal elections due early next year, the saffron party will be focusing on issues like "misgovernance", the law and order situation and "demographic invasion from Bangladesh" under the TMC's "patronage" rather than "Hindutva", which was its main poll plank during the last Assembly polls.
The BJP and its allies bagged a sweeping majority in Bihar, where the Opposition had been attacking it over the SIR exercise and linking it to "vote chori". Now, ahead of the crucial Bengal elections, the party has decided to highlight the SIR issue in a big way and has also engaged its social media machinery to inform how the rights and opportunities of people of the state are being "snatched" by infiltrators who are "TMC's votebank."
The BJP had even lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, claiming more than 13 lakhs of "fake voters" in the state. The party has also alleged that the state government has been putting pressure on the BLOs against weeding out illegals.
The BJP has also asked its leaders to inform people about the Opposition's propaganda against SIR in regard to the 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 veteran leaders to engage them in poll activities and use their "influence" to garner support. The party's poll managers have also been sending messages to its karyakartas that they will be given priority when it comes to candidate selection. The party had to face dissension during the last polls over the issue.
To drum up support, the BJP is undertaking "Parivartan Sankalp Yatras".
The RSS, it is learnt, has also been actively involved and has engaged its swayamsevaks to reach out to people.
Also, not giving any chance for the ruling TMC to divert the poll narrative, the BJP strategists have told the party leaders to keep the focus on issues ailing the state. Women's safety is also going to be a key poll plank of the saffron party.