The impact of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha march to state secretariat Nabanna on Thursday did not match its hype.
Organised over a slew of youth-centric demands such as a transparent recruitment process, jobs and raising the upper age limit for various exams, the event had four main rallies originating from as many points, the BJP state headquarters led by state unit chief Dilip Ghosh, a party office at Hastings led by Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, Howrah Maidan led by BJP youth wing national president Tejasvi Surya, and Santragachi led by state party general-secretary Sayantan Basu.
“By the end of the afternoon, it was clear that the sound and fury from the Suryas to the Naddas (referring to Tejasvi Surya and BJP national president J.P. Nadda) and hashtags such as #NabannoCholo could not be matched by the intensity on the ground,” said a source at the state BJP headquarters.
Though the Bengal BJP youth wing’s state unit chief Saumitra Khan claimed a turnout of over 46,000, and accused Trinamul of keeping tens of thousands from the districts from showing up, others in the party admitted worker mobilisation was an issue. “The original target was 2 lakh. It was scaled down officially to 50,000 a couple of days ago. In reality, it was not even 15,000,” said a state BJP leader.
A major reason behind the BJP’s failure to make the desired impact was the policing, which was spot-on. Another was the shutdown of Nabanna on Thursday.
BJP leaders seemed to play the victim card.
Surya called it a “Black Day”. “The way our cadres and leaders were beaten up mercilessly by police is unprecedented…. Do we not even have the right to conduct a peaceful, democratic rally in favour of youths in this state?” said the South Bangalore MP. He later tweeted: “Police Stations have become TMC party offices in Mamata’s Bengal…”
BJP national president Nadda in his tweets accused “Mamata Banerjee’s karyakartas and the Gov machinery” of unleashing “brute force upon BJP karyakartas”.
Trinamul general-secretary Firhad Hakim countered: “The BJP is not a political party. It is a party of terror…. It is trying to import to Bengal its model from Uttar Pradesh.”
