‘Pan-Indian strategy won’t work in Bengal’

Party should not have made NRC its primary bypoll plank, says State BJP vice-president

Chandra Kumar Bose.

A day after the BJP scored a duck in the bypolls, its Bengal vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose on Friday said it was time for the party to devise a State-specific plan as “a pan-Indian strategy would not apply to the land of Vivekananda and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose”.

Call for introspection

Calling for an introspection, Mr. Bose, the grandnephew of Netaji, said the party should not have made the issue of NRC its primary poll plank during the bypolls.

“It is essential for the BJP in the State to cleanse the organisation and devise a Bengal-specific strategy. We have to rectify our organisational lacunae. A pan-Indian strategy will not apply to the land of Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose,” he told reporters.

Political parties must work to develop the basic infrastructure in the State and not just try to polarise people to secure vote banks, the senior BJP leader said.

“People of Bengal are politically sharp and astute. Our party should not have made NRC its key poll plank as there is lot of confusion surrounding the matter. We could have highlighted other issues,” he added.

TMC victory

The ruling Trinamool Congress had on Thursday bagged all the three Assembly seats where bypolls were held earlier this week, trouncing the challenger BJP, a victory that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dubbed as a “mandate against NRC” and in favour of “secularism and unity”.