Swadesh Roy

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP achieved significant success in West Bengal. Based on that result, the BJP launched a full-fledged effort to seize state power in West Bengal in 2021. Although they couldn’t capture power, they emerged as the main opposition party in the state. Consequently, they believed they would perform better in the Lok Sabha election in 2024 than in 2019.

After India’s Lok Sabha elections, I haven’t yet written any comprehensive analysis of the election. However, after the third phase of the country’s elections, I discussed it with some friends and acquaintances from India and our country. I mentioned that the BJP wouldn’t get a single majority. I estimated their seat count to be below 250.

Due to various new issues, I haven’t written about India’s overall election yet. Additionally, there’s some lack of understanding regarding the nature of this year’s vote in South India. Before addressing these gaps, it’s impossible to write comprehensively about India’s Lok Sabha.

During the third phase of the elections, I spent a few days in West Bengal. One thing that became clear from the observations that came to the forefront was that the BJP or its media supporters are not talking about a specific issue. While they mention some reasons for not achieving their desired success, which may be correct, they are not looking at the internal state of their organization. This is significant for the BJP in West Bengal and many political parties.

No political party stands firm overnight, regardless of its ideology. Above all, behind its physical structure lies a combination of hard work and sacrifices. Although a cadre-based organization like the RSS governs the BJP, it is still a Third World party. Moreover, it is from the Indian subcontinent and is famous for guru or cult worship. Hence, no political party can ever come to power in that sense. Parties and political workers bring them to power, but ultimately, power is held by a particular individual or a few individuals. As a result, the leading “guru”, some big gurus and some small gurus, enjoy the power.

The significant phenomenon during this time was that some political workers not only expressed loyalty to these gurus but also demanded the deserved respect for their sacrifices. For any guru, giving respect to others is intolerable. Whenever this metamorphosis occurs due to the transfer of power to a political party in this subcontinent, some opportunistic pests take advantage of it. These pests easily infiltrate the decaying parts of this transformation. Therefore, although a few political parties have dominated in various ways in this subcontinent for nearly a hundred years, most of their exits are never honorable.

The BJP’s significant rise in West Bengal occurred after the BJP came to power at the center. Naturally, the influence of power-centered politics fell upon it. This is one of the most significant weaknesses of the West Bengal BJP. Due to this weakness, the results did not match their expectations before the 2021 assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Support from the people and bringing votes to the ballot box are not the same in any election in Third World countries and developed countries. For example, a large portion of African American voters in America support the Democrats. This support even increased during Obama’s election. However, the organization didn’t correctly bring a portion of them to the polling stations. Though Obama won, Hillary lost. The margin could have been reduced if African American and Latino voters were organized to come to the polls. This was evident in the Democratic Party’s post-election evaluation reports.

In reality, to win an election, a political party often requires the sacrifices and sincerity of its workers. It also needs political workers and leaders who know the election field and the candidates. Without a proper understanding of the election field and the candidates, it’s impossible to successfully increase the candidate count in parliamentary democracy’s candidate-centric elections.

Currently, this is the main issue in West Bengal BJP’s politics. The trustworthy BJP workers who built the organization in certain areas, even if it’s just five thousand people, primarily know the area’s and people’s DNA. Many workers and leaders have been pushed out of the mainstream in the last ten years due to a lack of money and demanding respect. Instead, wealthy opportunists and chameleons from other parties have taken over a significant part of the party. As a result, those who used to walk with the BJP in West Bengal thirty years ago mostly stayed at home during this election.

Consequently, the culture of BJP workers being present at four o’clock when they are supposed to be there at four-thirty was not seen everywhere this time. Instead, many workers under the shadow of power were not found even after waiting until five o’clock. Therefore, one of the main shortcomings in West Bengal BJP’s current politics is that they have lagged in vote politics by sidelining their dedicated workers in difficult times and advancing the wealthy and chameleons. This is the root cause of West Bengal BJP’s election setbacks.

Many analyze the BJP’s defeat in the West Bengal elections by saying West Bengal is a very progressive state with no place for communalism. Such statements are primarily Kolkata-centric self-satisfaction. Without answering them, Jyoti Basu’s statement about his own communism can solve everything. He said, “My wife goes to Kalighat every day; how can I bring communism to this country?” This is the reality of West Bengal. There is no reason to consider themselves superior.

At one time, we also thought that a modern society could be built in this subcontinent through political parties. Our predecessors also thought so. But the reality of political parties in this subcontinent is different. Religion is used in politics here under any name. Regardless of the form, at the end of the day, they go to Kalighat in various names.

Therefore, there is no place for modernity or secularism in the politics of this subcontinent. There will be no chance to think about these in the next few hundred years either. Modernity and secularism are cultures, education, and consciousness that require walking the path of knowledge-based life practices. It’s like the penance of Vashistha, achieving victory in the struggle to realize Brahma’s knowledge or worldly truth. It’s a different world, like Rabindranath’s quest to find “Who am I?” There is no reason to bring the politics of this subcontinent into this quest.

Hence, the main reason the BJP did not achieve its desired results in the West Bengal elections is not modern thinking or so-called talks. The party’s dedicated workers have distanced themselves. On the other hand, the “power party” is less able to create dedicated workers and leaders compared to new opportunists.

The author is a national award-winning journalist, Editor of Sarakhon and The Present World.