The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) classified each of West Bengal’s 294 constituencies into one of three categories, A, B and C, depending on the nature of the contest, according to six BJP leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity. . A refers to an easy win, B to a competition and C to a very difficult competition. Nandigram, where Congressman Trinamool (TMC) and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee faces off against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, is in Category B, HT learns.
However, the BJP says none of the 294 seats are difficult. “This is the first time our party has grown to 80,000 of the 100,000 voting booths we have across the state. We have classified them, but it is our internal preparation. This is our strategy, but we hope that people will vote for us regardless of the category of the constituency, ”said Kailash Vijayvargiya, national secretary general in charge of Bengal. Interior Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly stated that the BJP will win at least 200 seats.
Read also | ‘Abuse of force’: Mamata rages again as phase 3 poll underway in Bengal
Asked specifically about the constituency of CM, Vijayvargiya said: “Nandigram is in our category A.”
The categorization was done by top BJP strategists, and the list itself only includes some of the party’s top leaders and activists, HT has learned.
One of the people first named said that while Nandigram looks like a competition, “the BJP may be slightly ahead”.
Likewise, Tollygunge from which Union Minister Babul Supriyo is fighting is also in Category B, the people added.
Supriyo admitted he was given a tough spot, but added that he was confident of winning. “This is a serious assessment, but also a basic assessment of the organization in terms of constituencies that need additional support,” he said of his constituency categorization.
So what are the toughest or C-class seats for the BJP? The internal investigation indicates that it is the constituencies of South Bengal – Swarupnagar, Baranagar, Basanti, Jagatballavpur, Khandagosh, Murarai, Nalgoti and Manbazar – which are dominated by the Trinamool Congress.
However, most of the constituencies that make the headlines fall into category B. Other than Nandigram, Sitai, Moyna, Raipur, Kotulpur, Indas, Galsi, Katwa, Memari and even Tarkeshwar, where the former MP and journalist of Rajya Sabha, Swapan Dasgupta, is fighting. , are all in this category. “I cannot comment on this because I have never encountered such an investigation,” Dasgupta said when contacted by HT.
The easiest, or Category A, seats for BJP include Onda, Bishnupur, Asansol (dakshin), Para, Joypur, Shibpur, Khejuri, Medinipur, Howrah Uttar. Aside from Howrah, they are mostly found in the western parts of the state.
“We are winning Bengal. We won Nandigram. The only Union minister standing here will lose, ”said Derek O’Brien, head of TMC at Rajya Sabha.
“In the western districts of Bengal, the BJP has (always) done better, so they rank them as easier seats to win. In South and East Bengal, despite several corruption charges against TMC, it has an organizational presence, so the BJP will face opposition from certain demographics, ”said Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, professor of political science to JNU, explaining the logic behind categorization.