September 28, 2014
BJP joins Puja book race- Three-way fight between parties at outlets outside pandals | |
| ANINDYA SENGUPTA AND ARNAB GANGULY | |
Calcutta, Sept. 27: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin will take on Narendra Modi, V.D. Savarkar, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Mamata Banerjee this Puja. Preparations have begun for a three-way fight for eyeballs this festive season with the BJP, the new kid on the block in Bengal’s political theatre, taking a leaf out of the Left’s book and announcing bookstalls outside puja pandals across the state. Till last year, the battle had primarily been between the CPM and the Trinamul Congress, with Marxian literature in stalls draped in red competing with books on and by Mamata at Trinamul kiosks. “We will set up around 3,700 bookstalls during Puja. Our aim is to reach out to people with the party’s policies and programmes. The stalls will have books and party literature besides drinking water facilities, medical camps and information centres,” Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha said at a news conference in the state unit headquarters in Calcutta today. Although this is not the first time the BJP will set up stalls outside puja pandals, the number of outlets on earlier occasions had been much less because of the party’s limited reach in Bengal. However, by bagging around 17 per cent votes in the Lok Sabha elections in April-May and opening its account in the Assembly by winning a bypoll this month, the BJP has proved that it is no longer a marginal force in Bengal. The decision to set up more than 3,700 stalls indicates that the party is expanding its organisation across the state. Each stall is manned by six to eight party workers. The practice of setting up bookstalls during Puja was started by the undivided communist party in Bengal in the mid-fifties and emulated by Trinamul. Although communists are opposed to religious practices and rituals, the stalls are part of a political strategy to connect with people during Bengal’s biggest festival. The tradition of the undivided communist party survived the split in 1964, with CPM and CPI comrades in white kurta-pyjamas continuing to run bookstalls near pandals. Mamata, who has borrowed several ideas from the rival camp, picked up the mode of connecting with people, encouraging her party workers to set up bookstalls after she broke away from the Congress and formed Trinamul in 1998. The number of Trinamul stalls has been on the rise since 2008, when the winds of change started blowing. No prizes for guessing the main attraction at the Trinamul stalls. This year, Mamata’s new book Kutsapakkha, in which she has replied to “canards” being spread against her, will find pride of place at the Trinamul stalls. “Mamatadi’s books are very much in demand. Regular issues of party mouthpiece Jago Bangla and the annual festival number will also be available at the stalls. Local party units have been asked to co-ordinate with the leadership and open the stalls by Monday,” a Trinamul leader said. None in Trinamul could say how many outlets would be set up. Sources said the party wanted to open stalls near “even the smallest pandals”, and “special emphasis” would be on Calcutta. Sinha, the state BJP chief, said his party would have 480-plus stalls in and around Calcutta. The CPM, party sources said, will set up more than 500 outlets. The focus on Calcutta, sources in all parties said, was in view of the elections to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation next year. “Setting up bookstalls help parties and leaders gain visibility. As leaders visit the stalls, it sends the message that they are with the public during festivals. The stalls are a perfect marketing tool,” said a professor of marketing management in a Calcutta-based B-school. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140928/jsp/bengal/story_18881370.jsp#.VCh1K_ldXUk |
