Sunday, 19 July,Kolkata :The multi-crore Saradha scam and the issue of illegal migrants from Bangladesh will be the focus of BJP’s campaign for next year’s Assembly polls in West Bengal where the party is planning to expand its footprints.
BJP, which could not win a single seat in the last polls, has set its campaign in the state where it faces stiff competition from Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and Left parties. “Our organisation structure in West Bengal is little weak. We will focus on illegal work being done by the government there. We will hit out on corruption and especially a particular section of people who are abducting minor girls, we will fight all these,” BJP’s General Secretary and in-charge for West Bengal Kailash Vijaywargiya told PTI in Kolkata.
He said the party will do “sangharsh” (fight hard) to throw the state government out of power and form the government on its own in the state after winning the 2016 election. BJP had contested 289 seats in the 2011 Assembly polls in West Bengal but failed to win a single seat in 294-member House (excluding one member to be nominated from Anglo Indian community).
Vijaywargiya said the infamous Saradha chit-fund scam, “deteriorating” law and order situation and illegal Bangladesh migrants issue will be raised as part of its campaign. “We will raise Saradha scam issue. We have found corruption at the corporation level, we will raise that also. In all the law and order situation is bad in West Bengal, that also we need to raise,” he said.
Vijaywargiya said if his party comes to power, it will identify the illegal migrants living in the state and take appropriate steps against them. “Our clear thinking on the issue is that all illegal migrants need to be identified. Those who are living there whether they are Hindus or Muslims, they need to be identified. We need to identify the nationality of such people and take appropriate steps.
“We will take action on the way Bangladeshi migrants have been made to enter the state and given voting rights. This will surely be the election issue,” the BJP leader said, adding that, Bangladeshi migrants entering the state illegally need to be checked. Asked as to how his party would manage the number in Rajya Sabha, where it does not have sufficient members and require support of other parties including the TMC, he said the issue will be dealt by the central leadership.
“(BJP President) Amit Shah has given a target to me to form our government in the state. We will do all to form the government. Other issues will be dealt by central leadership here,” he said. On the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, he said BJP will be benefited by the Nitish-Lalu alliance.
“Our preparations are in full swing. Look at the comments being made by Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar at each other.Their alliance is not based on ideology but it is due to fear. People there will get to know that they have agreed for alliance due to fear and out of anxiety. BJP will certainly be benefited by it,” said Vijaywargiya, a prominent face of the party in Madhya Pradesh.
To a question on Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, he said the scandal is “small” as compared to those done by Congress. “Congress has done many big scams. This (Vyapam) is small as compared to them. We exposed the scam. We got it investigated. Whatever action was to be taken, we took it. Our intentions are clean. As far as the scam is concerned it is very small, Congress has done scams worth lakhs and crores,” said Vijaywargiya, party’s MLA from Madhya Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar–Mhow, constituency.
PTI