West Bengal polls: BJP president Nitin Nabin confident of forming government, citing surge in 2021

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party national president Nitin Nabin on Thursday expressed confidence that the party will form the first government in West Bengal, which is scheduled to hold assembly elections from April 23 to 29.Nabin pointed out that the party surged strongly in the 2021 state assembly polls, winning 77 seats (from just 3 seats in 2016) and garnering 38% vote share, which was the party’s best-ever performance in West Bengal.

“We will definitely form the government there… Where were we in Bengal in 2016, where are we in 2021? The political competition in Bengal is clear. Despite this, we have been growing steadily and have reached 38 per cent vote share… The BJP has steadily strengthened its base in Bengal,” Nabin told ANI in an exclusive interview.Performance in 2021 makes BJP main challenger for chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC). However, several BJP MPs, including some who defected from the TMC, returned to the Banerjee-led party after the polls.Furthermore, the saffron party’s vote share in the West Bengal Lok Sabha fell to 12 out of 42 seats in the 2024 general election, down from a record 18 seats five years ago.Preparations for the upcoming assembly elections have been dominated by the Special Intensification Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll by the Election Commission (ECI), followed by the deletion of 9.1 million voters, prompting the TMC to speak out.The Trinamool also questioned the ECI’s transfer of bureaucrats and IPS officers in the state. While the poll panel oversees the poll-bound state machinery in the model code of conduct, the TMC cited the transfers to accuse “collusion” between the BJP and the ECI.“If you bring in illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, we will certainly raise the issue. Have we ever arbitrarily deleted anyone’s name? But if illegal immigrants from Bangladesh try to obtain citizenship through unfair means, we will take action. More such actions will be taken in the future,” Nabin said on the SIR issue.“Mamata Banerjee has nothing to worry about. We will take care of the people of Bengal. So far, she only cares about Bangladeshis,” he added.Banerjee, who led the TMC to power in 2011, is targeting a fourth consecutive term.152 of West Bengal’s 294 assembly constituencies will go to polls in the first phase, while the remaining seats will go to polls in the second phase.Counting is scheduled for May 4.