No core issues, parties fight polls in West Bengal over viral content

2024 Lok Sabha election in West Bengal lacks central issues, dominated by misinformation and social media campaigns.

After three phases of voting in West Bengal, the stage is set for polling in south Bengal where 32 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State will go to polls in the remaining four phases. Halfway through, the 2024 Lok Sabha election in West Bengal has not seen a single issue or thread dominating the election campaign.

The 2021 Assembly election was fought on the BJP’s promise of ‘Sonar Bangla’ (Golden Bengal) that the Trinamool Congress successfully countered with Bengali identity and sub-nationalism. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when the BJP was on an upsurge in the State, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign struck a chord with the voters and the BJP won 18 seats.

The ongoing election is very different from the earlier two polls with no central issue dominating the political discourse. This year, the Trinamool’s campaign of ‘Bangla Birodhider Bishorjon’ (immersion of those opposed to Bengal) has not generated much enthusiasm. The Trinamool has tried to mock the Bengali pronunciation of Hindi-speaking BJP leaders, such as Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath, to keep the ‘outsiders versus Bengal’ divide alive, but such campaigns have also fizzled out.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who are addressing a couple of meetings every day, have been talking about the denial of funds from the Centre, termination of jobs by the Calcutta High Court, opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the welfare schemes of the Trinamool government.

For the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has addressed more than half-a-dozen rallies, the alleged atrocities on women in Sandeshkhali remains the focal issue of the campaign, followed by charges of corruption against the Trinamool government and attacks on INDIA bloc parties. Mr. Modi too has touched upon the termination of jobs in the State-run schools that was stayed by the Supreme Court on May 7.

Regional issues such as the demand for Gorkhaland in Darjeeling, the crisis of the tea industry in the north, jute industry in south Bengal, river erosion, the issues of the Sundarbans and the Jangalmahal are missing from the campaign by major political parties.

For a State that elects 42 MPs and is spread from the eastern Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south, the absence of any issue has puzzled many observers.