BJP’s ground game covered booths, bastis and high-rises
The categorisation of poll booths into platinum, gold, silver and bronze, appointment of “high-rise pramukhs” and outreach to NGOs were among the strategies that the Bharatiya Janata Party deployed in West Bengal over the last few months. While the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other parties focussed on the exclusions wrought by the Special Intensive Revision(SIR) of electoral rolls, the BJP brought about a multi-pronged attack to overthrow the three-term TMC rule. BJP workers and supporters in Kolkata celebrate the party’s success in the Bengal assembly elections on Monday. (AFP) “What we changed since 2021 is that we went on the offensive. We took on the Trinamool from every angle making Mamata Banerjee very defensive for the duration of the campaign,’’ said a senior party leader posted in Bengal. The first step for the party was to improve organisational strength, although it knew it would be difficult to match the TMC on this front. Even so, it increased the number of active ground workers from just over 100,000 in the last election to around …
