BJP's Modi-Mitron outreach drive fails to enthuse minorities in Bengal

The BJP’s search for mitron (friends) from among the minority community to purge its anti-Muslim image is failing to make much headway in Bengal.

There are 13 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal out of 65 in the country where, according to the BJP, Muslims are a key factor in elections. The target of the outreach programme in Bengal, christened ‘Modi Mitron’, is to enrol at least 50,000 “nationalist-minded” Muslims, preferably youths, by February 2024. The nationwide campaign was launched in April this year.

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The mitron are supposed to project the saffron party and its government at the Centre in a good light among the minority community.

“They are to highlight the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inclusive ideals of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayaas to debunk the opposition’s propaganda that the BJP is an anti-minority party,” said Ali Hossain, a senior BJP leader and former president of the party’s minority wing in West Bengal.

Wooing Muslims

The enrolment drive is being carried out in the state’s 11 districts where minority population is 25 per cent or above. These are among the 65 districts the BJP identified across the country for the drive. At least 5,000 members are to be enrolled from each of these districts.

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The party’s Minority Morcha is reaching out to Muslim intellectuals, madrasa teachers, religious leaders, social workers and professionals who are believed to be influential in the society. The party has identified Muslim women and youths as potential recruits among West Bengal’s about 30 per cent Muslim electorate.

“The drive has not been able to create enthusiasm among the state’s minority community,” said a BJP minority leader.

Only about 4,000 have been enrolled till the first week of July in the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, she added. West Bengal elected six MPs from the Muslim community in 2019 – five on TMC and one on Congress ticket.

Waning interest

The highest enrolment has been done in Jangipur in Murshidabad district. The party could so far rope in around 620 mitron, according to the party sources.

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The lack of enthusiasm of the community towards the drive, however, is not Bengal specific, BJP sources pointed out. They say that only around 20,000 have joined the outreach campaign across the country so far.

There is a general decline in the party’s support base in Bengal and it is naturally affecting the minority outreach drive.

“Some members of the minority community who had been disgruntled over the TMC’s fake promises were coming to us till last year. They thought we were the only challenger to the TMC.  But ever since the Left-Congress combine started gaining ground, it became the destination of the discontented minorities,” said the BJP leader.

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“We have not been able to clear the misconception about the party among the minorities,” she added.

The BJP’s vote share in the state is steadily declining since the 2021 assembly elections. The BJP had then polled 38 per cent votes. In the just concluded panchayat elections its vote share plummeted to about 22 per cent, which is a 16 per cent drop.

The Left-Congress combine managed to increase its vote share by around 10 per cent.

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