After Bihar win, BJP sets eyes on Bengal polls

After Bihar win, BJP sets eyes on Bengal polls

Kolkata: After clinching the Bihar assembly polls,  West Bengal will be the "prime focus" for BJP where it has set a target of winning more than 200 seats in the state elections due in April-May 2021, party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said on Wednesday.

The NDA has won 125 seats in the 243-member Bihar assembly, results of which were declared on Tuesday. The BJP with its score of 74 seats has emerged as the party to have won the second-highest number of seats after Lalu Prasad's RJD.

The saffron party's tally is much higher than that of its ally - the JD(U) which won 43 seats.

It will now shift its focus to politically crucial West Bengal, which sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha (two more than Bihar), Vijayvargiya, who is also BJP's in-charge of Bengal, said.

The BJP had already made deep inroads in West Bengal in the 2019 general election, winning 18 of its 42 Lok Sabha seat (four less than ruling TMC).

"The ground in Bengal is well prepared for a change and we have to ensure that the anger against the TMC government is channelised. We will use all our energy to free the people of the state from the misrule of TMC," Vijayvargiya said.

He asserted that BJP's victory in West Bengal will be "much bigger" as it will "storm to power with a two-thirds majority".

"If you analyse the Bihar and by-poll results you will see that BJP's strike rate is very good. In Bengal we are fighting alone, so we are confident of crossing the target of 200 plus seats in the state," he said.

Union Home Minister and top BJP leader Amit Shah during his visit to the state last week had said that West Bengal is the "prime focus state" for the party and it will "fight and win it with a massive mandate".

BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh had echoed him and said: "After Bihar, it will be West Bengal for the BJP."

A section of the state BJP leaders, however, underlined that the Bihar election results will have little impact on polls in West Bengal, other than seats along the border. But it will act as a "morale booster" for party workers in Bengal.

Several state BJP leaders said the party will take a cue from the Bihar poll results and "re-strategise" its campaign issues for the West Bengal elections.

To corner TMC, the BJP has been so far stressing on its alleged misrule, law and order issues, violence, corruption and the state administration's handling of the COVID-19 situation in West Bengal.

Although BJP has the advantage of being an "untested challenger" in West Bengal where it has never been in power, the party is well aware that it will be up against Mamata Banerjee, who has the reputation of being a tough fighter, party sources said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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