BJP eyes an opening in North Bengal

North Bengal goes to polls tomorrow. There are 54 seats in the fray and the BJP is targeting at least 12 of them. They include Madarihat,Kumargram,Nagrakata and Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district,Toofangunj in Coochbehar district,Habibpur in Malda and Kalcini in Darjeeeling district. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Bengal for the first time yesterday. He addressed three rallies in Madarihat,Dhupguri and Toofangunj. At each of them,he compared Gujarat and West Bengal,saying how his state had moved far ahead of Bengal in terms of development.

At Dhupguri,Modi pointed to a hospital and said: “Is this a hospital? It itself is dead. How can it provide medical treatment to those who are living? This is what you have got after 34 years of Left rule. They are sinners. Throw them out.”

One seat the BJP is confident of bagging is Madarihat,from where BJP candidate for Jalpaiguri parliamentary seat Manoj Tigga had a lead over the winner,CPM candidate Mahendra Nath Roy,in the 2009 parliamentary polls. Tigga is now the BJP candidate for Madarihat and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has promised to support the BJP for this seat. Of the 2 lakh voters here,the Nepali population constitutes about 20,000,giving the BJP a good chance to win.

“In terms of number of votes,we did well in the last parliamentary elections and civic elections. Coupled with our organisational strength,in north Bengal we hope to do well this election,” Rabindra Narayan Choudhury,Jalpaiguri district BJP president,told The Indian Express.

The CPM is not attaching much importance to BJP leaders campaigning in large numbers. “It is a democratic country and anybody cam address rallies anywhere. It is the people who will have the last word,” Rabin Dev,CPM state secretariat member,said.

The BJP has also pipped other parties in terms of helicopters – it hired three choppers to ferry national leaders across north Bengal.

For the entire state,BJP leaders hoped they would surpass their highest vote percentage of 11.84 per cent that it got in the 1991 parliamentary elections.