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Kolkata, October 8 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to highlight across the country the attack on party MP Khagen Murmu, who comes from a Scheduled Tribe background, in a bid to brand the Trinamool Congress as ‘anti-tribal’. A party insider gave this information on Wednesday.
As part of its campaign, the BJP plans to display photographs of the tribal MP’s injured face after the attack in large numbers in various tribal areas of not only West Bengal but other states. Its aim is to identify the entire ‘India’ coalition, including the Congress, as ‘anti-tribal’.
BJP had started publicizing the picture of injured Khagen Murmu from Monday itself. Emphasis was placed on the narrative regarding ‘attack on tribal MP’.
State BJP President Samik Bhattacharya also intensified that tone. Since Wednesday morning, BJP’s All India IT and Social Media Department launched a massive campaign against the attack on Murmu.
A ‘digital poster’ with the photo of the injured MP has been created. The poster has been written in English to show it across the country. For West Bengal and Tripura it has been done in Bengali. In some posters there is only Khagen’s picture. In some, the face of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is next to the face of injured Murmu. It is written there, ‘Shh! Even the tribals are under the wrath of the bloodthirsty Trinamool!’
BJP’s all India IT and social media department head Amit Malviya posted the poster on his X handle and wrote, ‘Those who leave no opportunity to impart knowledge about caste are silent like opportunists after the murderous mob attack on BJP’s tribal MP in West Bengal.’
He also wrote: “Do the lives of tribals have no value for Mamata Banerjee, Rahul Gandhi and the Left ecosystem? Or are tribals insignificant in their politics of selective outrage?”
It is clear that this time BJP wants to highlight the attack on Murmu in the alliance as a retaliatory step.
The primary target of the BJP’s campaign is West Bengal as assembly elections are to be held there next year. The BJP, which had received support in the tribal dominated areas of the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had to lose some ground in the subsequent elections.
To regain its lost ground in the 2026 assembly elections, the BJP state leadership is planning to put up the picture of injured Murmu as a banner in all the tribal dominated areas of Bengal.
According to a senior BJP leader, the party has two motives behind publicizing the incident on a large scale outside West Bengal. First of all, the party wants to damage Mamata Banerjee’s image in national politics. Second, to make parties like Congress and JMM uncomfortable. The BJP leadership wants to raise questions as to why the parties which have been targeting the BJP throughout the year are silent after the attack on a tribal MP.
It is noteworthy that elections have been announced in Bihar.
The seat from where injured Khagen Murmu is MP is Maldaha North, which is adjacent to Bihar and Jharkhand. In such a situation, BJP believes that this campaign can have an impact on the tribal areas of Bihar.
Earlier in the day, the BJP said the attack on Murmu, who comes from a tribal background, is an example of how the tribal population is “simply inevitable” in the politics of selective outrage practiced by not only the Trinamool Congress but also the Congress and the Left parties.
BJP’s information technology cell chief and party’s central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya issued a social media statement where he questioned the silence of all opposition parties in the country on the attack on Murmu, a two-time Lok Sabha member from Maldaha (North) constituency in Maldaha district of West Bengal.
“Those who never miss an opportunity to preach about caste remain silent when a tribal BJP MP is attacked by a Muslim mob in Bengal. Is it that tribal lives and dignity do not matter to Mamata Banerjee, Rahul Gandhi and the Left ecosystem? Or are tribals merely indispensable in their politics of selective outrage?” Malviya raised the question in his social media statement.
Political observers believe that Malviya had deliberately tagged the Trinamool Congress as well as the Congress and the Left in an exercise to highlight the issue of the attack on Murmu in order to unite voters from the Scheduled Tribe community in favor of the BJP amid the crucial West Bengal Assembly elections next year.
–IANS
SH/PGH