The stories of Antara Bhattacharjee and Nurul Huda have something of the fantastic in them.Bhattacharjee has swung from the left to the right — a former Communist Party of Indian-Marxist (CPI [M]) member she has switched sides to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Huda, a Muslim from the industrial town of Rishra, on the outskirts of Kolkata, thinks that the BJP is a “secular party” and Modi “respects” the minorities.What was unthinkable a few years back may soon become a reality — the BJP becoming a major player in Bengal politics. The numbers tell a story: the saffron surge that swamped north India during the parliamentary elections earlier this year had also created a political ripple in West Bengal. During the 2011 assembly elections in the state, the BJP’s vote share was just 4.06%; this went up to 16.84% during this year’s Lok Sabha polls.The party that won one Lok Sabha seat in 2009 managed two this year, retaining Darjeeling and grabbing Asansol, an industrial hub that had been a Left bastion for decades. Better still are the results from the recent by-elections to the state assembly.BJP won the Basirhat (South) assembly seat and secured second position in Kolkata’s Chowringhee seat. The last time BJP won an assembly seat in the state was back in 1999. That the Left influence is on the wane is brought home strikingly by the fact that the CPI (M) candidate from Chowringhee Faiz Ahmed Khan lost his deposit — a clear sign that the BJP is slowly but surely becoming a significant player in West Bengal. However, Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and West Bengal higher education and parliamentary affairs minister rubbishes the claim that BJP is gaining in popularity.“The party is organizationally weak. During the last parliamentary elections it could deploy agents in only 710 booths out of the total 71,000 in the state,” he says. Moreover, he sneers, the party has to “invite” leaders from Delhi to campaign for their candidates as they don’t have local leaders of stature. The ongoing CBI probe in the Saradha scam has dented Mamata Banerjee’s image, especially with the arrest of Rajat Majumdar, former West Bengal police chief and TMC leader.According to sources in the BJP’s West Bengal state unit the party has seen a steady rise in membership numbers over the past decade. From 46,000 registered members in 2000, the BJP’s membership number now stands at 6,35,202.One reason for the growing popularity of the BJP in Bengal, and especially in the rural areas, is the perceived protection that the saffron party can provide against the terror launched by the ruling TMC workers against those who oppose them. The use of violence to cow down the opposition has been a political reality in West Bengal for decades. The Marxists did it when they ruled the state from 1977 to 2011. And after May 2011 when Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister her party cadres followed the political template.According to Biman Bose, CPI (M) politburo member and state party secretary, between May 14, 2011 and July 31 this year, 159 CPI (M) and Left party workers were killed in West Bengal. Altogether 9,341 CPI (M) workers were injured after they were attacked by the ruling party activists.More than 49,000 CPI (M) workers have been forced out of their homes. CPI (M) leaders allege that some antisocials backed by the ruling party had extorted nearly Rs 30 crore from CPI (M) workers and their family members for allowing them to stay in their homes. Antara Bhattacharjee is one of the victims of TMC terror raj.Back in May 2013, TMC workers allegedly ransacked the house of Bhattacharjee and beat up her 75-year-old uncle. Says Bhattacharjee, a former sabhadhipati of West Midnapore zilla parishad and CPI (M) activist: “Even with our political connections we were intimidated by the ruling party workers.”According to Bhattacharjee, goons allegedly backed by the TMC regularly threw crude bombs at her home in Raghunathchowk village in West Midnapore’s Pingla block. “I am not an ordinary woman and was an active CPI (M) worker. I ran the zilla parishad for five years before my party lost to Trinamool in 2013. I used to enjoy the status of a minister of state while running the zilla parishad. If I had to undergo such a fierce attack, the plight of ordinary CPI (M) workers can easily be imagined,” she says.

And then came her decision to join the BJP. “The CPI (M) leadership is incapable of protecting its workers in rural Bengal.



The BJP is running the government in Delhi and activists of different political parties who are facing attacks by the ruling party, will automatically seek shelter under the BJP’s umbrella,” says Bhattacharjee.

Her views are echoed by Chandan Sen, noted theatre personality and a Left intellectual. “The Left leaders have failed miserably to protect their workers. In West Bengal we are experiencing government-sponsored terrorism. Many political activists belonging to the opposition camps now feel that the BJP can offer them shelter and protect them; that is why these people are joining the saffron party,” he says.On the other hand the BJP has been quick to stand up for its workers against TMC-sponsored atrocities. Within days after its Muslim leader in Birbhum’s Illambazar, Seikh Rahim was killed, a BJP team from Delhi visited Kanur village where Rahim lived and held a massive protest demonstration. The central team led by Balbir Punj submitted a report to the Union home minister Rajnath Singh and party’s all-India president Amit Shah.That the saffron party is willing to match the TMC’s muscle power is also underlined by the growing number of clashes between the two. Between Narendra Modi taking over as prime minister in May this year and August, there have been 290 clashes between TMC and BJP according to Uttam Das, a senior BJP leader in the state.Nurul Huda, a 24-year old businessman, had been tracking Modi’s speeches during the run-up to this year’s parliamentary elections. “I was really astonished to hear Narendra Modi’s rallies in different parts of the state before the Lok Sabha elections. I heard Modi telling a meeting in Serampore [a town in West Bengal] that he wanted to see Muslims with the Koran in one hand and a laptop in the other. Modi is very progressive and also respects Muslims. I think the BJP is a secular party,” he says.According to Huda, now a BJP supporter after switching allegiance from TMC, West Bengal’s ruling party has become arrogant and believes in using force to squash opposition, something that the CPI (M) had mastered during its heydays in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.Huda is not the only one from the minority community to believe that the BJP is a party with a difference. Says Javed Iqbal, a Kolkatabased maulvi: “I joined the BJP as I realized that this party is sincere in its aim to improve the condition of Muslims. I didn’t like Mamata Banerjee’s act of giving allowances to imams and I consider it as a very cheap ploy to get Muslim votes.”In April 2012, the state government had announced a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,500 for all imams of mosques and later decided to give Rs 1,000 to muezzins too. Last year the Calcutta High Court rejected the government’s proposal.This change in Muslim perception has added another twist to West Bengal’s politics. Muslims, traditional Left voters, had moved to the TMC ahead of the May 2011 assembly elections. Is there another shift taking place in the community?The BJP state leadership is gung-ho. Recently Rahul Sinha, the state BJP president, had claimed that 1.75 lakh Muslims had joined the saffron party after Modi became the prime minister. Sinha reels off some stats to establish the growing popularity of his party among the minorities.“At booth number 161 of Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency, we got 575 votes against 151 obtained by the Trinamool, and 91 and 13 secured by the CPI (M) and Congress respectively. There were 990 voters in the booth and the area is Muslim-dominated. More than 90% of the total 990 voters were Muslims and still we got maximum number of votes,” he says.Expelled CPI (M) leader and a former minister in the Left Front government Abdur Razzak Mollah agrees with Sinha. “In Arenda village TMC workers attacked some people and closed shops because they suspected them of voting for the CPI (M). But recently, I have found those shops open with BJP flags on top of those establishments,” says the veteran politician. According to him, a section of Muslims, who used to support the CPI (M) and faced the ire of TMC workers, has now moved to the BJP camp.Mollah goes on to add that any political party which could mobilize 25-27% of Bengali Muslim votes, can win elections. However, not everybody is willing to buy the BJP’s minority-wooing card. Mohammed Selim, CPI (M) central committee member and party MP from Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, says that given the BJP’s communal history it’s difficult to believe the party’s claim that Muslims are joining it in droves. “Maybe some Muslims who are anti-Communist and had joined Mamata Banerjee’s camp after she came to power were now shifting to the BJP,” he says.The “achchhe din” that Modi has promised has a few takers. Shishir Bajoria, a Kokatabased industrialist with interests in manufacturing and insurance, is one of them. A firm believer in Left ideology and closely associated with the CPI (M) for over 20 years, he has swayed to the other end of the political spectrum.“I am a sincere supporter of Narendra Modi’s economic policies and I feel that he would be able to carry out a significant economic change in our country in the coming five years,” says Bajoria, who joined the BJP as a primary member last month. According to him in 2011 the people of the state had voted for change. The time has come, he says, for “parivartan ka parivartan karna hai...”Senior BJP leaders have confirmed to ET Magazine that they were preparing themselves for getting 150-plus seats in the 294-member state assembly in 2016. TMC is well aware of BJP’s plan and trying hard to check the growth of the saffron party. BJP’s hopes may just be dreams. But the cracks in Mamata fortress can clearly be seen. With the CPI (M) nearly vanquished, the BJP can look to take up the opposition space in West Bengal before the state turns to waste Bengal.