The BJP on Tuesday used the first anniversary of the Bogtui massacre to breach the minority vote bank of the Trinamul Congress as the ruling party and the state government continued to find themselves on the backfoot ever since 10 Muslims were killed at the Birbhum village last year.

Bogtui became a political battleground among Bengal’s three major political parties — Trinamul, BJP and the CPM — which lined up their own political programme to commemorate the victims of the massacre. While Trinamul and the BJP set up two separate memorials, the CPM took out a silent rally on Tuesday.

A BJP source said the saffron camp had started to prepare the pitch for its political gameplan in Muslim-dominated and Trinamul stronghold Bogtui at least three months ago by getting in touch with family members of the victims and planning to set up a memorial for those who lost their lives in the carnage.

To roll out the party’s game plan, the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, on Tuesday took out a silent march in the village to commemorate the first anniversary of the massacre. Adhikari’s rally was marked by the participation of most of the members of the victims’ families, while Trinamul managed to bring only five.

Trinamul leaders at a rally in Bogtui on Tuesday. The Telegraph

Adhikari was quick to use the occasion and appointed a local leader to keep in touch with these families and vowed to be with them in the future.

“We got only 17 votes (in the 2021 Assembly polls) in Bogtui village and you all had voted for Trinamul to make Mamata Banerjee the chief minister. But we were the first party to set up a column in memory of your innocent kin who lost lives in the massacre. Trinamul only followed us. We will continue coming here and be with the people of Bogtui,” said Adhikari who attacked Trinamul and police for their lackadaisical role in the carnage.

“The chief minister today flew to Puri but did not even tweet to commemorate the victims of Bogtui. We came here and stood by you all,” he added.

While the BJP made desperate attempts to woo the minority populace, the Trinamul faced a major embarrassment as the local Trinamul MLA Asish Banerjee was not allowed to enter the house of one of the victims on Tuesday.

A Trinamul leader said the members of the family shut the door on seeing Banerjee accompanying a group of senior Trinamul leaders to the house.

“Asish Banerjee is not welcome here..... Anyone can come to our home but not Asish Banerjee,” one of the family members said. However, other Trinamul leaders were allowed access to the family members.

Banerjee, however, said he did not visit the village earlier to avoid any controversy or face charges of influencing the CBI investigation.

A Trinamul leader in Birbhum admitted in private that the incident was a face loss for the party.

A BJP leader said Bogtui was the best option for them to reach out to the community and put the ruling party under pressure because of two reasons.

He said the advantages of using Bogtui are two-fold — first, it is a Muslim-dominated village that witnessed the highest number of killings of innocent women and children in violence where Trinamul is accused. Secondly, Birbhum, a known Trinamul stronghold, is facing a political void in the absence of Anubrata Mondal who was sent to Tihar jail on Tuesday in connection with the cattle smuggling case.

“Bogtui is the best example where both the victims and the accused are Muslims. The people of the community have understood how the Trinamul government using them for its own interest and that is why they are shifting their allegiance from them. The presence of most of the members of the victims’ family at our event proves how the community are moving away from the Trinamul,” said Jagannath Chattopadhyay, a BJP state general secretary.

Trinamul leaders, however, claimed they were the first to stand with the families of those killed and chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the village within two days to offer compensation and government jobs to each of the victims’ kin.

Sensing the attempt of the BJP to create a breach in its minority vote bank in the run-up to the rural polls, micro, medium and small industries minister Chandranath Sinha said: “The BJP is trying to use the Bogtui villagers for their own politics. People of the area know how our government stood beside them.”