LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the Bharatiya Janata Party's star campaigner and poster boy, delivered a strong strike rate in the West Bengal Assembly elections, with the party winning 19 of the 22 seats where he addressed rallies or held roadshows.
Data show that out of the 22 Assembly seats, the Trinamool Congress and BJP held 13 and nine seats, respectively, in the 2021 Assembly elections. The tally changed comprehensively as a saffron wave swept through Bengal. The BJP's tally on these seats soared to 19 while the TMC got roundly decimated to just three seats.
Yogi's campaign helped the BJP wrest 10 out of 13 seats held by the TMC. Only Dhanekhali, Udayanarayanpur and Bolpur remained with the TMC. Yogi was among the most sought-after saffron leaders in the high-stakes West Bengal polls, where the BJP was locked in a direct contest with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC.
A high point of Yogi's rallies came on April 13 when BJP's Suvendu Adhikari touched the feet of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister at a public rally in Kanthi Dakshin Assembly seat. Adhikari went on to defeat Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur Assembly seat.
BJP sources said that Yogi made language and Bengali identity a key element of his campaign. Analysts point out how Yogi asserted that only Bangla would be spoken in Bengal, responding to controversial remarks about Urdu. "Tell those who say Urdu will be spoken here to go where Urdu is spoken. In Bengal, only Bangla will be spoken," Yogi would say in his public meetings. He also countered TMC's famous slogan of "Khela Hobe" with the "Khela Shesh" declaration. The slogan was repurposed as "Ebar khela shesh, unnayan shuru" (The game is over, development begins).
At the same time, Yogi kept up his trademark cultural and religious narrative. Experts said that Yogi frequently emphasised Bengal's identity as the land of Maa Kali and Maa Durga. "We must not let the land of Bengal become the land of Kaaba; it will remain the land of Kali," he said at one of his rallies. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also said that the "UP Model" would be replicated in Bengal once the BJP wins, claiming his government in Uttar Pradesh ended "mafia raj" and curfews. He categorically warned that after May 4, TMC "goons" would be seen "rubbing their noses" and begging for mercy on their knees.
At a rally in Nandakumar, Yogi attacked the TMC government over alleged "appeasement politics", stating that "those opposing Vande Mataram should leave the country".
