BJP takes Left route to Centre

A key element of the BJP8217;s post-defeat strategy, finalised at the party8217;s recent 8216;8216;chintan baithak8217;8217; in Goa, i...

A key element of the BJP8217;s post-defeat strategy, finalised at the party8217;s recent 8216;8216;chintan baithak8217;8217; in Goa, is to target the Left parties, expose the 8216;8216;contradictions8217;8217; between the Left and the Congress, and take advantage of this in the states of Kerala and West Bengal.

Sources said the BJP8217;s antipathy for the Left, and vice versa, is nothing new, and the Sangh Parivar as a whole regards the Communists as their most consistent ideological adversary.

But the BJP8217;s decision to target the Left at this juncture stems from their belief that the Congress-Left divide on economic issues at the national level and as political adversaries at the state level form the central faultline in the UPA Government. This faultline must be exploited to the hilt to hasten the fall of the government, they feel.

According to sources, in Goa, the BJP leadership decided to pay attention to Kerala and West Bengal to usurp the opposition space, which cannot be utilised properly by either the Left in Kerala or the Congress in WB because of their cohabitation at the Centre.

8216;8216;Our feedback is that there is a sea change in the public mood in West Bengal and the people are angry with the two parties for joining hands in Delhi,8217;8217; a senior party leader said.

To take advantage of this 8216;8216;public mood8217;8217;, the BJP held a three-day 8216;8216;political shivir8217;8217; in Kolkata from August 6, which was attended by 800 delegates and addressed by leaders like Arun Shourie, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Sushil Modi.

A similar camp is scheduled to be held in Kerala from September 8-10. Although the BJP has never won a single seat in Kerala, the party managed a respectable 12.5 per cent of the popular vote in the Lok Sabha elections and is looking upon it as their new 8216;8216;sunrise8217;8217; state.

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Naidu, for instance, today attacked the government for slashing EPF interest rate to 8.5 per cent. Pointing out that the Left had promised to raise the rate from 9.5 to 12 per cent, Naidu said they had now betrayed the people 8216;8216;by giving tacit support to the UPA government8217;s anti-poor and anti-working class8217;8217; move. 8216;8216;Will the Communist leaders now bark, bite or merely give sound bytes?8217;8217; he taunted.