'With Or Without Sandeshkhali...': Prashant Kishor's Big Lok Sabha Poll Prediction For BJP In Bengal

lok sabha elections 2024: prashant kishor’s big lok sabha poll prediction for bjp in bengal: with or without sandeshkhali..

New Delhi: The BJP has made massive gains in West Bengal and the crisis in Sandeshkhali region is only going to benefit it further in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, election strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor told Times Now. “With or without (the crisis in) Sandeshkhali, the BJP has been on an upsurge in Bengal. Make no mistake,” he said.

The BJP is a very strong political force in the state and the party will “no go below” the number of seats it won in the 2019 elections, he said. With the increasing anti-incumbency against the Trinamool Congress, the party will find it difficult to defend their territory, he said.

Of the 42 seats in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress had won 22 and the BJP bagged 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The Congress won the remaining two seats.

“Mujhe aisa lagta hai ki BJP ko Bengal mei bahut ache number aa sakte hai (I feel the BJP will perform better its 2019 tally in the upcoming elections),” said Kishor, who was Mamata Banerjee’s political strategist in the 2021 assembly polls.

The BJP has been scaling its attack against the ruling Trinamool Congress in trouble-torn Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, where some TMC leaders have been accused of sexual assault and land-grabbing by local villagers.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has likened the situation in Sandeshkhali to Nandigram, where a movement against “forcible” land acquisition by the then Left Front government in 2007-08 catapulted the TMC to power in 2011.

“The situation in Sandeshkhali is like Nandigram… people have brought serious allegations of land-grabbing, vote-looting, sexual harassment and murder of democracy in the area,” he told reporters in Kolkata.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC are still in force in certain parts of Sandeshkhali.

The region has been rocked by protests over alleged land-grabbing and sexual harassment of women by local TMC leaders, including Sheikh Shajahan and his brother Sirajuddin Sheikh.

Trouble started brewing in the area when a team of ED officials that conducted a raid on Shajahan’s house on January 5 was attacked by a mob allegedly affiliated to the local TMC leadership.

The area also saw visits by members of the National Human Rights Commission, national ST and SC commissions and the National Commission for Women.

The Director General of Police also visited the area twice in an effort to instill confidence among the villagers.

With inputs from PTI